Bereavement

For years I would stroll through cemeteries and look for her dates - after awhile i looked for all of our dates. I have this thing about the lack of reason and the profuse rhyme in matters of life and death. So your birthday is a rhyme (happy birthday in advance)

So maybe 20 years ago now, I was at a support group for homicide survivors and a newly bereaved mother, Roma, came in and started to talk about her son Paul Jr.

- Her son was killed on July 6
- His birthday was July 19
- He was shot by a young man who was born on the same day of the same year in the same town (Long Beach CA) as Paul Jr

I could not even close my mouth as these dates were spilling from her lips. We stayed close for years afterward and would never forget each other on the dates of July 6 and July 19. To this day I cannot forget her or her son though we have lost touch in the past 5 to 10 years.

Rhymes.