"Mommy, are you going to die?" Usually when a young child asks this he or she is easily comforted and reassured. By teenage and young adult years the predominant attitude is not apprehension but a strong feeling that life is just really beginning. They can drive too fast and take dangerous risks without concern. With maturity a contest can develop to keep death away from our door. Take care of your body, stave off disease and aging—though we know that at some point, death will prevail.

Perhaps we think it is for the elderly who are close to the doorway connecting this life to the next to "be not afraid" as the Psalm says. A young sixty-year-old woman named Marge was approaching the end of her struggle with cancer. When someone asked if she was afraid, she smiled and shook her head no. Everyone leaned in close to hear her answer to the next question, "How? How are you not afraid?" Smiling she said, "I’ve trusted God all my life. Why would I stop now?"

For some people such trust might come easily. For others it must be worked at hard through prayer, reflection, even reading which all require time and effort. To have, at the end of life, the serenity that Marge had would be worth the effort now. How would you answer the question, "Are you afraid?"

Jean Marie Hiesberger