Today started off on a celebratory note (yes, I know, rare for a Monday). I woke up to find out that my cousins Eric & Ravell's little baby girl had been born. She is 5lbs 7oz, 18.5 inches and her name is Whitney. I drove to work in the excitement of meeting the new little peanut, secretly wondering if it was too late to talk them into changing her name to Lizzie. An hour later my day took a turn that you can never expect. As one new life was entering this world another was leaving. Today, for the first time, I experienced the joys of birth and the sorrows of sudden death within the same hour. It is the strangest feeling knowing that tears of people I love were being wept at the exact same moments last night, for completely opposite reasons.
So today, as I held my little newborn cousin the frailty of life fresh on my mind I learned what it felt like to experience heartbreak for those mourning and hope for those celebrating at the exact same time.
- Lizzie
Life and death are balanced on the edge of a razor. -Homer, Iliad