death

I used to believe…

When I was growing up, my dad worked at a shipyard, and we'd go fishing there on weekends. While we were there, we'd see stray cats that the guys there kept around to catch mice.

So when our pets died, Dad would tell us he was taking them to work with him to live with the other animals. We believed him for the longest time, until I caught him burying one of our cats when I was 11.

I used to believe…

When I was younger, I used to think that coffins were cans that you put dead people in so that other people can eat them like sardines... So when my uncle died, and I went to his funeral, I cried and I asked my mum "Are people going to eat uncle Joe?!"

I won a fish in a school carnival when i was 9 and didnt have any supplies for it, so when i got home i put it in an empty peanut jar. Fish food? we didnt have any so the food in our house that looked closest to it was bread crumbs. I sprinkled a few in the jar and that night i woke up to check on it. It was floating at the top of the jar on its side. It looked like it was asleep so i left it alone and woke up the next morning to see it still "asleep." It slept for the next 2 days until i figured out that i had to let it go

I was terrified of elevators because I thought that if I ever got stuck in one I would run out of air and suffocate. I would always take a few extra deep breaths before entering one so I'd have extra oxygen in reserve.

I used to believe that pencil lead was still made out of lead. In the sixth grade I was walking to the pencil sharpener and a friend was walking back from it, swinging her arm, and accidentally stabbed me in the finger with her pencil. The lead broke off in there, and I was SURE for a few weeks that I was going to die of lead poisoning. And instead of just going to the teacher, the school nurse, or my mom, I kept it to myself! (By the way, that little piece of graphite is still in my finger--24 years later!)

I used to believe…

When I was little my cousin told me that when you go by a cemetary you have to hold your breathe. She said it saved a life. So, ever since she told me that to this day I still hold my breathe!

I used to believe…

Me and my brother used to believe that when a person died, their spirit would become a seagull, and they would fly up and down the coast until everyone in their family was all right and ten they would fly away over the sea. We passed this belief onto my cousins as well.

I used to believe…

after my aunt died, i was really sad because i couldn't talk to her anymore. I remembered that on Lion King, Rafiki the monkey let simba talk to mufasa by touching the lake with his magic stick. i didn't have a lake or a magic stick so i would sit by the bath tub poking it with a broom tryin to talk to my aunt.

I used to believe…

when i was little.. anytime i watched an action movie where someone gets shot and died, i thought that the directors just found a person who wanted to die and killed them for real...

I used to puzzle over how they got people to agree to die on films and TV programmes. I worked out that the producers must have the contacts for all terminally ill people in the world and would phone them up to persuade them that as they were going to die anyway, it would be better if they did so on a film and earnt money to leave to their family. I never did work out how they got people just to be injured and mutilated! I remember seeing a two-parter of Batman when Robin was stuck in a giant clam till the next episode a week later. Obviously he had a luxury apartment inside the clam for the rest of the week.

I used to believe…

In the movie Lion King there is a part where Mufasa tells Simba that bodies become grass when they die, and that antelope eat the grass. Well, after I saw it I was afraid of picking grass, mowing the lawn, and dying because I didn't want to hurt all the people that had turned into grass, and I didn't want to become grass because I didn't want antelope to eat me.

I used to believe…

when i was younger, i had these weird pains on my body a couple times a day that felt like pinching. it was right after my great grandpa died, and i was certain his ghost was following me around and pinching me to let me know he was still there.

I used to believe…

When I was younger, I went to my mom's friend's brother's funeral. I was really hungry, and my mom kept saying that we were going to leave soon. My grandmother kept telling me that my mom's friend's brother was going to heaven. So I stood in front of the coffin staring at the dead body for about 2 hours, until my mom came up to me and said, "UH, what are you doing?" and I responded, "I'm waiting for him to go to heaven!" I honestly thought that a ladder or staircase would come out of a mass of clouds, and the dead guy would get up and out of the coffin, wave to us then climb up to heaven.

I used to believe that everyone lived for exactly 100 years, and that as soon as you blew out the candles on your 100th birthday cake you would die, surrounded by your family.

I used to believe…

When I was six I found a giant mushroom covered with ants in my grandmas backyard. Being a curious child and never seeing one before I just had to touch it. Afterwards I went up to my aunt and asked her what that was and she replied, "Oh honey, don't touch that. It's a mushroom and it may be poisonus." So I ran up to my dad and started crying telling him I wanted to go home. I was afraid that since I touched it I was going to fall over dead at any given moment but I was too afraid to tell him that.

I used to believe…

When i was very very young, not even in kindergarten yet, I had a favorite uncle who for what ever reason faked his own death, except that the whole family new it was faked. He showed up at his own wake with his dark grey hair bleached white where family members shook his hand and congratulated him.
For years after that i thought that when you died you changed your hair color and your family told everyone that came looking for you that you were gone.