When you’re growing up you’re told life is the best teacher, in which it is, but when it comes to the topic of death it doesn’t make it any easier. Although death is the one thing that is promised in each and every person’s life, it is one of the hardest topics to bring up. No one speaks about death, in the UK, anyway and I don’t understand why we don’t do this.
After listening to to the podcast Conversations Against Misery hosted by Aaron Gilles and Lauren Pattison who were discussing the topic with guest Cariad Lloyd who happens to host Griefcast – a podcast about grief, it made me think about death and inevitably, I cried, it was very emotional because it’s the one thing that we all struggle with. For me especially, as someone who lost their mother during their late teens.
I’ve accepted it happened and I’ve also seeked professional help but some days are unbearable. Death changed me, I find it easy to talk about with strangers because they don’t ask too many questions but when it comes to those close to me I close off.
We need to be able to speak on the inevitable stages of life, we should speak about death in the same way we know about marriage or having children because we all know it’s going to happen. It does not need to be a ‘depressing’ talk because it is such an important talk.
Not just about the deceased but for yourself and what you’d like to happen when it’s your own. Other cultures embrace death i.e. Día de los muertos – the day of the dead – and it isn’t a sad day because it seen as a celebration of life, when such positive words are put regarding the saddest day of other people’s lives. It changes the connotations around death, it makes it easier to talk about and leaves no room to push away that discussion. I can’t speak for those cultures but from the outside looking in, I have to applaud them for this.
So let’s talk more about death, let’s embrace it because it is going to happen to all of us and it’ll probably help us grieve better and get closure too.
