Dear Mighty Silence,

These past two, three days—I have done nothing but cry. A dear colleague has left with you, so suddenly, so cruelly. A cardiac arrest, they said. He left behind a devastated wife, a daughter too stunned to speak, and a 14-year-old boy who seems to be turning into a man overnight.

I know sudden death is not uncommon. But still… to have a father laugh and talk with you, and just three hours later, hear that he is gone—that is something no heart is ever ready for. His daughter has gone completely still. Two days now, no tears, no words. She cannot even bring herself to look at her father’s body. I cannot imagine the pain she carries in that silence.

And you must know this: the boy, her brother, has the most beautiful soul. There’s a quiet strength in him that breaks my heart. From this day forward, I have decided—I am his guardian mother in spirit. I will send him my unceasing prayers. He will not be alone. This boy was singing a goodbye song to his father—held up so he wouldn’t fall— on the funeral day. It was one of the most heart-shattering moment, beautiful, a grief so deep that only comes from a love so huge.

Dearest Silence, you have opened the final door for their father, to return to you. I ask you—help me and the whole family in this. I don’t understand the whole universe, nor do I pretend to. But I trust that beneath all this grief, there is something greater at work. I believe that true goodness has no opposite. I believe we are held, even when we are broken.

So bless us, all of us, in our sorrow.

Amen.

—

Karin Sabrina