So this man's family has moved on. But what about himself? If he hadn't been so cruelly struck down by this insidious disease, he would have been in his mid-fifties now, probably still vigourous and very able to still enjoy life. Every day that goes by is a day that this man should have been able to live through and enjoy! Every new day is a day that has been stolen from him! His family is happy again, his family has moved on, but nothing can compensate him for what he has lost. If his wife visits his grave every day, if she brings fresh flowers and kisses his gravestone and talks to him and does everything she can to prove her love to him, that still isn't going to give him back a single day of all the days he has lost.
I suppose, if you believe that there is nothing beyond this life, than his death is a tragedy. If there is nothing to gain on the other side, then he truly has lost everything.
But, for those of us who believe that this life is merely a station on the way to something better, death is not the end. Like Hasini, I mourn for those left behind but not for those who have gone on.
Next week will mark eight years since I lost my husband. In those eight years I suppose I have "moved on". You have to - or you'll go insane. Do I miss him? Absolutely and every day. But I honestly believe, no, make that,
I know that he is in a better place and that I will see him again someday. When this life is over and we can be together without the worries of mortality, who can say that either of us lost anything?
Before you get upset and tell me that I've misunderstood you, Ann, let me say this. When an author kills off Lois (or any character) it's for literary license. It's an entirely different thing than when God calls us home. I only speak to the latter since you used it as an example in your post. To me, there is a vast difference between fiction and reality.
I read one to escape from the other. And, sometimes, a good cathartic cry is just what I need. So I don't mind if an author "kills" one of the characters. Because in the next story they'll be fine and whole again. It seems a bit overwrought to get really worked up when the memory chip in my head resets with each story. Unlike life, in which there is no way to back up and change a darn thing.
It's all subjective, isn't it? We each bring our own luggage along on every story.
