The Cool Room by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 37

Just as Frank finished cleaning off his blotter, he heard Jonathan and Emily return from the hospital. With them was the body of an elderly man who had passed in his sleep some time during the night. Upon his admission, he signed a DNR, forbidding any heroic measures in the event his heart stopped. He no longer saw himself as the young man he once was, but as an ancient shadow of the eventful life that was now past. He believed that if he left the earthly world, then it was time to take the next step, and during the night after his admission, he took that step. The contact names listed in his chart were notified, and within the hour, his aging wife arrived. She sat next to the bed and held his hand as tears streamed down her face. In fact, she was fully aware of her husband’s impending demise. As the darkness of night began to wane, she was awakened by the image of his lifeless face as his head lay on the pillow of his hospital bed. When the phone rang, she knew with as much certainty as the awareness of her existence that her husband of fifty years was dead. Legally, it was an attended death, and an autopsy was not required. Now, his body – having been washed and wrapped in a shroud by the nursing staff – lay quietly in a red velveteen bag, about to be transferred to a cooler at Frank’s Funeral Home. For this nameless man, the cycle of life was complete. He had done all the things expected of him: school, marriage, children, work, retire and die. It is the same with many who seem to be blind to their true potential, choosing instead to live out the life dictated by the many, who stand as shining examples of how to be average -- silent and well-behaved. Soon, his body would be committed to the earth, and with the exception of a few, his life would be forgotten, cast to oblivion as so many are – those who feel no need to be the catalyst of change. Even in its smallest measure, the realization of the need for change can sometimes be enough to stir the hornet’s nest of social awareness. But like this man, many insist on living in a state of unknowing and will die achieving nothing – never having made a difference.