What Thine 'Tis It To Die!!!

On this past Friday of November 29, 2024 a very good and dear friend of mine passed away! She was the ripe old age of 86! It really hurt me deep inside because we had been friends for over four decades! I often refer to her as my Macon Ga. Big Sister! We met back in the late seventies when I was an insurance agent riding around Macon Georgia collecting on debit three days a week for a company called Independent Life! She was a very sweet lady that always had a very pleasant attitude accompanied by an equally pleasant smile! We both like to play the Cash 3 Lottery! In fact that was the way that we met! Her small community store was a drop off point for those that like to play the illegal lottery because back then Ga. did not have a lottery. Ga. would not start the lottery until 1993! For almost the last twenty-five years there were not many days that I did not talk to Gin. This was years after she had closed her store and was just a house mom! And I had left the insurance business and was in another profession. But we both still like to play the Cash 3 Lottery! We both also like to talk about our backyard garden! What we had in it and how it was growing at that time! I will truly miss Gin and her phone calls! When someone die I often think of the poem that I wrote upon the death of my 15 year old Best Friend Leroy Searcy, who passed away from cancer! What Thine 'Tis To Die? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What thine 'tis it to Die I've often wondered why? In thine body-not thy soul, Interred in some great big hole. A castaway in distant space, Yet, without a common face. Being a lost soul? Being in a lost hole? What thine 'tis it to die? To die and yet not die? To lie and yet not lie? The dead are bawling, The live are crawling. To lose someone close Hurts the very most. Going back to the dust, Existing as common rust. From within the lost past, Let the dead come at last. Here today-gone tomorrow, Longsuffering and now sorrow! ****************************** Reflections In Black And White Prose by David Vincent Laster