In the midst of life........

We give lip service to some things. In our head we know that, as Ecclesiastes (I think it was her) said: "In the midst of life we are in death."

In theory we know that horror can happen at any moment, but if we kept that in mind all the time we'd go stark raving mad. It is one of  life's blessings that we do not know what is just around the corner. Meanwhile we pretend that we are safe, much like a grazing gazelle on the savannah lives in the moment even though lions prowl the edges of the herd.

I just found out that the baby of a young woman who I consider my niece-in-spirit died after a brief and apparently mild illness. She was one year old on December 3. She had just started to walk and enjoyed practicing climbing the stairs in Nana and Opa's log house. In the modern world we just do not expect healthy, breast-fed babies to 'get a fever' and die all of a sudden.

Nooveya was special and I am not just saying that because she is gone. I only met her in the gorgeous flesh once, during a visit to my hospital room in July. But I followed her well documented life on Facebook. Much like her mother she had a love of life and a special sparkle. 

Nooveya's pictures lit up the screen with joy. She was loved and adored by her Mommy, her Daddy, her big brother, her  grandparents, aunties and uncles and cousins. Now there is a black hole of grief where she was.

I can do nothing at this moment except hurt with them.