My cousin lost his mom in December 2020 to Cancer of the Ovaries.

Forty years ago, his mom had every intention to remove her Ovaries but was advised against it because she was unmarried, with two children, and was 38 years of age.

Who would’ve known that at the age of 78 – Cancer, having depleted the organs of her entire body, would have changed her appearance in a set of months and end her life the day after Christmas?

While the undertakers pushed her thin, frail body on the stretcher to the van, my cousin shook his head, signed the necessary papers and shouted to his mom: “ Young Girl, Walk Good.”

Walk good is a phrase often used in Jamaica to someone who has died.

I take Walk Good to be a farewell-to-you on your transitioning journey.

My cousin, I suppose having now claimed himself the patriarch of the family, summoned us into a circle, touched our shoulders and reflected on how much his mom indirectly prepared him and his sister for her departure.

With a half-grin on his face, he revealed that though his mom is now gone, his fiance had a child on the way.

It was then that he said nervously that “as one is gone, one is born”.

Many years ago, in a noble act of charity, his mom had legally requested that her body be used to donate to the Department of Surgery at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.

Her wish came through just one month after her passing.

My cousin struggled with grief but looked forward to his future paternity.

Soon, to the eve of his mother’s passing, his fiance was rushed to the hospital one fateful Thursday where ultimately, they lost their child and then hers.

My cousin watched on in tearful suspense as doctor’s scrambled to resuscitate his fiance as the cardiac flat line appeared on the electrocardiogram device.

He watched as her body was wrapped inside a bag en route to the hospital mortuary.

In a span of 6 months, my cousin lost his mother, his fiance and his child.

Today on his social media account, he posted;

A painful lesson learnt, but a lesson learnt nonetheless.

W. E. C. Dyer

I didn’t inquire about what lesson was learnt here.

But I certainly CD C re-learned a lesson myself.

His post led me to think of the serenity prayer;

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and wisdom to know the difference.”

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr

Amen.