Page 1 of In Every Lifetime
Unkown
Ihad never really thought about how I would die. I knew it would come someday. In my mind, I would be old and withered, the wrinkles in my skin a map of the long life I had lived, my loved ones close at my side as I drifted away peacefully, surrounded by the quiet comfort of love and family.
The concept of death had always scared me. There was no way to know what came next. Heaven or hell? Would I simply cease to exist? Would I be reincarnated as someone new… something new? I had spent my life choosing not to think too deeply about it. It was easier that way. Safer.
Now that I was staring it down—the end of my life—I couldn't help but regret never having understood my own beliefs about what came next. Here I was, facing the unknown with no idea what awaited me. Would this be the end? Would I simply never exist again? Would I awake in heaven, waiting for those I had loved most? Or would I find myself in hell, atoning for the sins that had riddled my life?
There were worse ways to die. Dying to save the person you loved had to be the most honorable way to go. I would die knowing I had saved the most important person to me.
My aching body sank slowly but steadily to the riverbed. The water filled my nose, my eyes, my mouth. It was cold, almost soothing. Soon it would fill my lungs, my stomach, and the world would go dark.
I couldn't help but wonder again whether I would go to heaven or hell, if such places even existed. But I had already known heaven on earth. They were high above me now, finally, forever safe. My heaven on earth would live, and that was all that mattered.
