"Wayne Harrison" wrote
i am 62 years old. my father died at 30, in a barroom fight. my
mother
died suddenly, simply falling to the ground, while walking beside my
eldest
son. i have never seen anyone die, and i never wish to do so.

I'm 51 and I've watched dozens of people die, many in traffic accidents
and many at the hands of others. I was afraid I'd grown so callous to it
that I wouldn't feel much when I lost a loved one, but it wasn't so. I don't
know if any son has felt deeper grief than I did when mom lost her battle
with cancer last summer. Two weeks after her funeral I had to handle an
unattended death (no physician, so a quickie investigation to rule out foul
play) where the whole family scenario was eerily like my own family's
(decedent was the same age and general background as mom, same number of
kids, etc). It was the toughest death of a "stranger" I've ever had to deal
with.