Death Takes a Holiday-Living well through suffering
MEMBER COLUMN
by Jim Greer
LW contributor
Recently, a neighbor and friend passed from this side of the veil to the other.
Pat Pawlak lived a life of passion for her religion and compassion for her neighbors. She had been beating cancer for decades, and through her repeated healing, gave the glory to God. Unfortunately, with this last onset, she lost the recurring battle and was taken home to be with God.
In the 1998 film, “Meet Joe Black,” Death—portrayed in the person of Brad Pitt—takes the body of a young man and appears to William Parrish (played by Anthony Hopkins) and reveals his intention to experience life for himself before taking Bill.
For centuries, the dark specter has remained emotionally unattached to the beings he escorts, and during his brief holiday begins his journey to discover the full range of emotions associated with earth life.
Concealing his identity, he assumes the name of Joe Black.
Observing Bill’s full and rewarding professional and family life, Joe comes to appreciate the meaning of a life well-lived.
He also realizes the loneliness of his own life and profession as The Grim Reaper.
While visiting a hospital, Joe is recognized by a terminally ill Jamaican woman who fears Death has come to take her to “that next place.”
The two converse in Jamaican Patois, “You’re not in the right place, mister. Me neither,” the woman says.
Knowing only he can end her suffering, she pleads, “Take me, and you come with me now.”
Not wanting yet to leave the life he has discovered, Joe replies, “But I not lonely here.”
Realizing he is new to human life, she answers, “Like you come to the island, and had a holiday. Sun didn’t burn you red red, just brown. You sleep, and no mosquito eat you. But the truth is, it bound to happen if you stay long enough. So take that nice picture you got in your head home with you, but don’t be fooled. We lonely here, mostly too. If we lucky, maybe we got some nice pictures to take with us.”
Acutely aware of her continuing suffering, Joe asks, “you got enough nice pictures?”
To which she nods, yes. With his newly acquired compassion, Joe releases her from her suffering, and she passes to “that next place.”
Pat Pawlak left this earthly struggle with her life’s pictures in her heart. The same pictures she had displayed daily to friends and strangers. She lived as she did because she believed as Voltaire, that “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.”
Her gift to herself was living well through her suffering with kindness, positivity, testimony, and gratitude. Despite her hardship, she displayed in her face those pictures as evidence of her victories over cancer. And, when Death finally came to claim her, she greeted him as a friend. Someone she knew could relieve her suffering and escort her joyfully to that next place.
