There’s this Chinese family that lives a couple of houses up from me. Two of the ladies, who look like they might be in their 70′s or 80′s, usually help an older man walk up and down our street. At the pace he walked, I would guess that it took him about 15 minutes to walk past 1 house. The would be out walking everyday. Sometimes, I would stop by and carry on a conversation with them, with my horrid Chinese. One day, I realized I hadn’t seen them out in a long time. Finally today, I saw the two ladies outside. As I walked by, I asked them how they were doing. To confirm my hunch, I asked them about the old man. The lady gave no answer, but only shook her head. There was an awkward silence. What are you supposed to say after that? Then the words “take care” popped into my head. That was the last thing I said to them before walking to my car to drive off to work.

It made me think about the old couple that lives next door to me. The woman’s daughter committed suicide last year. The woman herself is dying of lung cancer. We often live day to day, not realizing that death is very much alive.