What If?

There it sits, wind-blown, sun-bleached, alone. The silk flowers wilting from weather and age. The paint peeling, wood warping, and leaning slightly to the left. The lone cross casting shadows on the dried grass as the rush hour traffic zooms by. A memorial of one lost, not forgotten.

You've all seen one, planted alongside a winding mountain road, posted on a telephone pole near busy intersection. A wooden cross, a sign, a painted white bicycle...a memorial placed at the site where someone lost their life. As you drive by, do you ever say a silent prayer for the lost soul or wonder how their family is doing? Maybe you contemplate your own life and what your family might do if they lost you. But have you ever wondered 'what if...?"

What if we placed memorial symbols in every place where someone has passed away? I know, it's completely morbid, but so is the idea of repeatedly visiting the exact site of your loved one's sudden death! Can you imagine meeting up with your realtor to find a new house & walking in to find a memorial posted on the wall marking the room where someone passed away earlier in the year? Or maybe getting admitted to the hospital for a minor procedure, and the room you're admitted to has a big ole cross on the wall (or maybe a few) denoting that someone died in that room? Would that boost your confidence in your doctor or your chances of making it out of that room alive?

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that we need to remember those who have passed before us. But, that does not mean that I want to go to my grandmother's house and sit in her living room, on a hospital bed, remembering those last few moments of her life. I want to remember her living life! I want to remember those vibrant moments that made me smile, laugh, cry. I would rather not focus on those last few moments, as her emaciated body struggled with her last breath.

So, the next time you're in the grocery store, at the bank, or walking into your public library....just imagine if we plastered the world with memorial plaques any place where someone took their last breath! Just wondering "what if...?"