[ WP ] Death is about to retire and has chosen a successor , which is you .

I first met death many, many years ago, although I did n't think of it in those terms until much later. At first, it was simply an absence - a squirrel who I'd always seen outside my window, a dear pet, a beloved but distant grandfather. 
 
 Those early lessons, no different from anyone else's, left no great impression on my young mind. But as I grew, and aged, they became more insistent. Far-away tragedies - wars, natural disasters - seemed to occur at critical moments to pull me out of my self-absorption. Those close to me came and went. My parents passed, and I was thrust into responsibility for my own life. Friends - good and bad influences alike - came to unfortunate ends before I could be pulled onto their paths and away from that determined for me long ago. 
 
 None of those losses hurt as much as her. She gave my life meaning it had never had. In the time I had with her - all too brief - nothing else mattered. Her suffering was the hardest lesson of all. I cursed God who I mistakenly blamed for taking her from me, science that could not save her, other people and forces for no better reasons. Of course I blamed myself as well. The years that followed were dark and lonesome. 
 
 And finally death - not the dark, ominous concept, but the being itself - stood before me. For the first time, I looked into his eyes. I saw his relief - almost an innocence, like I'd had before he first made his power known to me. Happiness to be rid of his burden, too - an overwhelming joy I'd not felt since before he'd stolen my love from me. 
 
 He may no longer hold the power he'd given me, but the wisdom of eons remained. He could see my thoughts - my anger as I thought back to all that he had taken from me, all he had put me through. And I saw his fear, a familiar sensation from when I felt that my own death was close. 
 
 But I also thought back on all he'd taught me. 
 
 The old man cowered before me. Stripped of his power, he was a mere mortal standing before Death. A situation he'd been in countless times before. But now, he was the one to await Death's judgment...
