Fragile

I came home from working out today and the street was full of cars. I'm house sitting, and the next door neighbor's house was blocked off with police tape. I pulled into my driveway and there was police tape on my porch blocking off the side yards. My mind immediately started trying to figure out what happened. There was a cop blocking off the yard and he asked me if I lived there. I told him yes, and asked what happened, but he said he didn't know. I went inside the house while people gathered in the front. I was concerned, but I don't know the neighbors well. I went upstairs and looked outside. There was a crowd of people in the backyard and a man laying on the ground half covered in a sheet. A woman knelt at his side and occasionally people wiped their eyes. After about fifteen minutes, a group of men picked up the one on the ground and put him in a body bag. They wheeled him to the front and put him in an ambulance. He was young. In the absence where his body lie, the woman collapsed and sobbed. People consoled her and she moved to the front where more people were waiting with open arms.
I have never seen a dead person, except once at a wake. This just happened. This was tragic. I can't help but find myself emotional at the situation. Even though I had no connection to the neighbors, I find my own life standing still. The business stops. It doesn't matter if the grass needs to be cut or the house cleaned. Everything stopped. When you see someone in that sort of agony, it only makes you think. My heart broke for her.
I know that people die. Thousands of people die every day. It is a fact of life, but it doesn't always seem like a reality of life. I can't even imagine what the wife of that man is going through. Death became a reality for her today. And for me, I feel like I was hit a little too.
Life is fragile. I don't know how to deal with death. Death is the absence of one who used to be present in our lives. It can come in an instant. It is sad. So sad. I am sad.
Hope is necessary. In the wake of tragedy, Hope is the only thing that is sufficient.