Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis (1952)
My life, so far could be marked in a series of bizarre events. I am not talking about the life-changing stuff that everyone goes through but the little stuff that tilts your reality and shifts your idea of time.
Death has played a substantial role in instigating these things. There is no getting away from the fact that the death of anyone close is a traumatic experience and subsequently there are often things required of you that you would much rather not have to think about. That is the way of things and often nothing we have any say about.
Death, for me sparks off some random god of mischief and mayhem. When I divorced, I took on the name of my new partner, this meant that we had the same initials and surname. A little confusing as far as post goes but not nearly as interesting as when he died. The tax office, in their wisdom accidently marked all my files as deceased instead of him so when my employer submitted my income tax from my wages it was returned. It took months to get it straight and even then, the only option on their computing system was to mark me as un-dead.
On the death of my mother I endeavoured to arrange for permission to scatter her where my dad’s ashes had been interned. Turns out that dad was now in the wrong place so I would have to do it in secret. However, in establishing this the church records identified that a burial plot of land had been purchased in my name but, due to an administration error there was someone else in residence. There was no record of exactly who it was, and no gravestone or marker had ever been erected so the only way to try and find out was to apply to the court to exhume the body and do DNA testing. Now, as I have plans to be cremated and so would never be using it I decided to let them rest in peace, but when I shudder it brings a whole new meaning to the phrase someone is walking on my grave.