“I wrote (this) after I sat with my mom on the edge of eternity as she was dying. It just reminded me that we live in a broken and difficult world. The days I have spent recovering from deep grief are what have shaped me more than any other emotional event. The hard truth is, those I’ve sent on ahead to be with Jesus in heaven, would not even for a moment, come back. Not even for me. So, do we still grieve when we lose someone to the sting of death? Yes, but it is for us. For the sorrow it brings us, not for the departed who is sitting so completely loved and whole, waiting for us to join the party.” Patty Widgren Reyna
When you sit by the side of someone
Who is on the edge of eternity,
Something happens to your soul.
You realize the brevity of life,
You absorb every sound, breath, and moan
As if you’ve never heard them before
And never will again.
The reality is that you won’t,
Not from them.
When you sit on the edge of eternity,
Priorities fade and each breath becomes important.
You wish for it to be over, but you cannot bear the end.
And then, eternity begins for them.
You weep and wail, but not for them,
For yourself, for loss,
For the future, without them,
For the ‘what ifs’ and ‘whys’,
For what was.
Yet, on the other edge of eternity
They absorb the sights and sounds,
As they could never imagine anything
So completely wonderful, and whole
They explode with the purest joy
And the reality is
They would never come back, never,
Not even for a moment,
From the other edge of eternity.
By Patty Widgren Reyna