A reader of this site who asked to have his name withheld sent me this…
You and I are very much alike when it comes to how we view death, or at least I believe we are by how you described your feelings dealing with the passing of your mother. I'm not a religious person at all — despite having just used the word "passing." Death comes to all of us and is unavoidable. Life is too short to be mired in grief for a long period. Yes, I would be sad and miss the person, just as I imagine that you miss your mom, but like you I don't think it will affect me in the profound ways I see it affect others — and certainly not for the length of time.
I received bad news today that my mom now has cancer for a fourth time. This time, there may not be much that can be done. I'm not looking for pity. It is what it is. I refuse to call it terminal since anything can happen but I am prepared for the worst. Sure, I am angry and sad, and all the other stages of grief but I am also accepting of the fact that time could be short.
What I don't remember seeing in your posts was anything about guilt. Did you ever feel guilty because you have the ability to move on faster than others?
Personally, I am sitting here feeling bad not because I will lose my mom but because I don't feel like what is considered the norm. I know others that if they were to hear the same news about their loved one, they would be in tears and have a sleepless night.
I, on the other hand, am upset with myself because I'm not more broken up over the news. I'm upset with myself knowing that when the inevitable does happen that I won't handle the situation like "everyone else."
At one time, you said "No law says you have to feel the way you think you're supposed to feel." I'm wondering if you ever dealt with guilt from thinking that way.
And what about external sources of guilt? Did anyone ever seem to be angry with you simply because you were not sad, or not sad enough? Was it enough to say to yourself, "There is no law…?"
No, no guilt, no anger. I did get a burst of fury from a distant friend of my mother who was upset that I hadn't notified her when it happened but I felt no guilt about that, either. My mother had left a list of people to notify, this person's name was not on the list and I simply didn't know they were still occasionally in touch.
So no, no one seemed angry with me for getting over my mother's death so quickly. I suppose if someone had, I would have discounted their anger because such a person could not possibly have been close enough to the situation to understand it.
My mother did not die suddenly. She died slowly, over about ten years during which she had a horrendous amount of suffering, many wishes that it would all end, and no hope that things would ever get better for her. The emotions I felt over losing here were more or less serialized over those years as I felt I was losing her, piece by piece. Each time she came out of that hospital — and she must have been in there thirty times — there was a little bit less of her remaining.
Moreover, I knew my mother. I knew her a lot better than all the onlookers and external forces combined. I knew how much she wanted me to get on with my life; how she felt enormous guilt over how much of it was being spent caring for her, being awakened in the middle of the night, foregoing outta-town trips so I wouldn't be far from her, etc.
Shortly after my father died, when my mother was still in relatively good health, she asked me to find her a lawyer. She said, "I want to take care of everything in advance so that when I go, you don't have to." I saw nothing wrong with that so I found an attorney, my mother went to see him and a few weeks later, she handed me a sealed manila envelope and said, "Here. When I die, open this. You should be able to handle everything in fifteen minutes."
She had put everything she owned into a trust with me as the sole beneficiary. She had prepaid for what they call in those commercials, "final expenses" — in this case, her cremation and the scattering of her ashes at sea. There were instructions about what to do, who to call, everything. Does that sound like a woman who would have wanted my life to come to a screeching halt when she died? Or is it a woman who wanted me to be as unaffected as possible by it?
I will suggest to you that most people feel that way towards their loved ones even if they don't have the wisdom and foresight to arrange things like that. They don't want to cause their loved ones trouble and pain when they're around and they certainly don't want to cause it when they're gone. I saw no reason to feel guilty about honoring her intent.
As it turned out, it took a little longer than fifteen minutes to handle everything once I opened that envelope. She had lived so long after the papers were drawn up that a lot of her life — like newly-opened bank accounts — was not covered by her advance planning. But she made it a lot easier for me than it otherwise would have been. (My mother outlived the lawyer who drew up the paperwork for her. She also outlived the mortuary that had sold her the cremation. It had gone out of business but fortunately, its obligations had been assumed by another outfit.)
Sure, I miss her. Every so often around 5:30 in the afternoon, I'll have that odd feeling that there was something I was supposed to do that I haven't done…and then I'll realize what it is: I always called her around 5 PM. But I see no reason for guilt, nor would I even care if someone was assholish enough to have an opinion as to whether I'd mourned sufficiently.
These things are just between you and the Deceased. And since the Deceased can't express an opinion, they're really just between you and yourself. If you're at peace with it, no one else should matter.