Life and Death: The Irony Of It All

Assalamu aleikum,

Have you ever heard of the saying, “Wherever there is death, there will always be death?”

Well if you haven’t, now you’ve heard it. This came to my mind yesterday morning when I heard a really disturbing news.

On September 24th 2015, my biological mother survived the Mecca Stampede. I was an emotional wreck that day and prayed that her life be spared. My whole family did. Alhamdullilah she escaped. Four days later, the woman that raised me (My uncle’s wife), the one who is my real mom passed away.  As you already know, my phone had broken down during that time. So when family members from her side of the family tried to reach me, they couldn’t. That’s the irony of death. Someone related to me had to go. The time was up. Allah didn’t want to bargain with me like I always do to get my way so I was in complete Oblivion.

Apparently she had been requesting to talk to me for over a while and the people watching over her dismissed her pleas as nothingness thinking she was just being needy until she passed away and they realized they had to let me know since I was the only contact in her phone overseas. I’m sad that I didn’t get to talk to her one last time.

I didn’t hear the news until yesterday. Nearly three weeks later. They buried her and kept quiet.This is creating a stink in the family but I won’t go into the details. Her family has the right to pick sides over past issues.

It also make sense why she hadn’t pick the phone in almost two months. She had been sick and hospitalized. My uncle and her divorced but I kept in touch with her and she was the sponsor at my African wedding. He also kept in touch with her and helped her but her family didn’t care. They decided not to tell him about her death when they all knew and run into him many times at the hajj and later in Africa.

All I can do now is pray for her which I have been doing around the clock. I’m deeply shocked. Her birthday was just this past August. She was young but fragile health wise. She never had any children of her own. My siblings and I were her children after my father passed away. May Allah grant them both jannat al firdaws, ameen. Please keep them in your prayers. May Allah reward you for that, ameen.

I guess this is bittersweet. If I had found out right when it happened, I would have canceled my son birthday party. I would have been a mess at work when the first two weeks of the month are very important. And it was quarter end. Plus Allah had to take one of two mothers’ souls and He made the choice for me knowing that I argue with Him way too much. Bittersweet indeed. Bittersweet 😦 .