Will You Prepare For Death

It’s 2:30 AM when I am starting to write this blog post. I want to be in bed asleep. But my insomnia won’t let me sleep now. My body wants me to sleep when I am supposed to be alive, awake, alert and enthusiastic at 2:30 in the afternoon. I’ll be at work then. My lack of sleep causes me lack of energy. My lack of energy causes me to allow things to build up around my condo such as cups, dishes, clothes, and snail mail. I usually let it look like a small tornado has swept through the condo leaving enough work for a cleaning person to come through and earn some money for an afternoon of work.

This past Saturday I managed, thanks to a weekend off from working at the nursing home, to have that much needed energy and focus to go on a cleaning spree. I have two modes. I let everything turn into a mess and then I turn into what Kristin calls the cleaning Nazi. I managed to go to morning mass at 8:00 AM before I dedicated my morning and my day to making the Condo look pristine again. What will it look like in 2 weeks? I cleaned it 2 weeks ago and had to spend another Saturday cleaning it up again. Why do I let it build up? I went to Dunks before I went back home and managed to bring home a Boston Creme for my wife who was still asleep when I went to mass. She’s actually awake downstairs at 2:39 AM having insomnia also.

As I was cleaning I was listening to YouTube videos which included this video.

Near the end of the video Bret Cooper reads an ad for EpicWill. It got me thinking that Kristin and I should look into that and perhaps work on filling out our wills. You never know when and where you are going to depart this earth. An illness or accident may sneak up on you and hug you till you die. This past weekend some LGBT + individuals went out to have a good time at night club and become part of an neverending group of victims mowed down by a disgruntled individual with no respect for the value of human life. Whatever your beliefs are on LGBT + activity, any good person religious or not , straight or not should agree that murdering anyone in cold blood is always wrong.

I may or may not have enough time to clean up everything around the condo of my life before I die. I may or may not have totally everything prepared and ready when God forecloses on my life. I hope I do have enough time to properly prepare my will, go to confession, say goodbye to loved ones and other such related things. I walked around my condo complex praying a rosary with this intention in mind. Thinking about death is not always a cheery thing. As a Catholic I know that looking forward to the afterlife should be something I do in peaceful expectation. But it is still something draped in darkness in mystery even if it is in hope. But what I want to happen when I die, while my body is here on earth and my soul is hopefully in purgatory or having been purged of my sinful attachments is in heaven, is expressed beautifully in the words of a friend of mine written on facebook. I would add that I want to be an organ donor.

For the record: When I die, I do not want a “Celebration of Life”. I do not want a “Homegoing”. I do not want any modern travesty that avoids the grim reality of death. I want a “funeral”, with a Mass offered for the repose of my soul. I want you to dress up for my funeral out of respect for me. (I will be watching.) Do not canonize me or say I am “in heaven”; pray for me instead. I want a set of Gregorian Masses said. I want an open casket, if appropriate, so people can have closure and see the reality of death. I want to be buried whole and entire (NOT cremated), for I believe in the resurrection. So be it.-Eric E.

The reason I am mentioning times in this post is to record how long it takes to write, publish and distribute a post.

It is now 3:45 AM. I have uploaded and shared my post on the various Facebook groups I am part of. I will sneak downstairs and see if my wife is awake so I can read it to her.

She fell asleep while I read it to her.

ADDITION ADDED AND FINISHED AFTER 4 AM

In 2020 a friend of mine named Pattie Goodale and her mother and brother all died.

Read about it here. A Year After Death | Mark Wilson (patheos.com)

ADDITION ADDED TWO DAYS AFTER PUBLISHING POST

Death seems to have popped up a lot recently in the news and in my own personal life. Tuus amendments to my original post.

As I was writing this new reflection on death I received a note on FB. I sent this note to one of my best friends who ended up writing this.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I found out last night that Life Care of Leominster has started a scholarship in Patty’s honor. It is called the Patricia Goodale Champions of Care Memorial scholarship. It is for nursing students who will be graduating from Leominster high school. The first scholarship will be awarded this spring.

I have to say that I am absolutely elated about this. I received the message from a friend of mine who is Facebook friends with one Patty’s coworkers at Life Care. This woman said that they will never forget the sacrifice that Patty made to protect her patients. I also think it’s important we remember the rest of her family passed away as well.

Patty always told me that she loved her residences at Life Care and she called them her family. She would always go above and beyond to help them and take care of them. Patty absolutely loved animals especially dogs. I also found out that several people have been donating money to local shelters in Patty’s name. Words cannot express how deeply this has moved me. Patty was an example of true love and compassion in this world and she gave life everything she had. It means everything to me and all her friends that her legacy will live on.- David Patten

Tom Ostrowski on FB: No more! Colorado, Virginia, there is something we can do, we can pray! We can change our country from the grass roots by being more present to each other. We can require mental health checks, we can impose limits and turn the tide on this bloody time in our country’s history! The Colorado shooter was stopped by a hero who ran towards him, thank God he was there. Let’s face our ills and keep moving forward together. These things didn’t happen to someone out there. They happened to someone who could have been you or me or someone we love. God have mercy!