The grief of a father

I received  a call from my friend A when I was about to leave my office for my yoga session.  He told me to bring my wife to see him at his restaurant after my work. He sounded very serious and I agreed to see him later.

When I arrived at his restaurant , there were many cars  outside his restaurant and we were lucky to find a space when one of the parked cars left.

My friend,A could see our car from the inside of his restaurant and he walked out to welcome us. He got us seated and serve us two cups of green tea. After we have taken a sip of the green tea,

" My son passed away more than a week ago"  he blurred out and his voice was sad and he tried hold back his tears. He died of cancer and my friend continued to tell us the event before his son's death. How his son keep his sickness from him?  His son have tried to managed the sickness by himselves and have believe in his Taoist master, who have promised him another 7 years of life.  But , it did not happen and my friend, A was very critical of him.  But, the fact is that his son was dead and he is hurted.

He wants to talk and I could sense the pain inside him as he fought back  his tears.  I keep consoling him and that is the only thing I can do apart from lending him my ears. He told me that cancer is a very scary and freightening word. He quoted many cases of people whom he knew who is suffering or die of cancer.

I know his feeling as I have seen  both the parents of my wife and a brother in law died of cancer.  The ordeal is very painful , hurtful  and bad memories is long lasting.  It takes a long time to recover from such bad experience. This is life.  When there is life , there is death. We have to accept this fact and it will not change for anyone.  Even the pope or a  King have to die.  How famous or infamous we are,, we  also need to die. No exceptions. Period.

The person could have gone but the people , he leave behind will suffer the lost and the emptiness. It is the grief all the living ones have to go through.  If we are aware and understand this fact, it will be very much easier to let go and seek solace from such bad memories.

Namaste.