Get In Line

Looking through the obituaries (only to see if my name is in there) I notice there is a phrase people use of ‘preceded in death by’. These are the family linage that died before the one in the obit.

It usually means a father or mother or perhaps a child who died too young, but take it a step further.

What is your ancestry? What about Nana or Pop-Pop? How about your cousins who died before you did? What about your former friends? What about former lovers? What about x-wives?

Newspapers charge by the line and should ask the question of who came first?

Then there is a phrase of ‘survived by’. These are the family members who are in the back of the line.

From the time you take a breath, you are in the line.

Some skip ahead in the line and some let others pass by, but we are all in the line.

Maybe someone will tell you to go back to the end of the line, but you are still in the line.

By the time you get to the front of the line, you don’t look back.

You have arrived.