My first encounters with death.

A series

Do you recall your very first experience with death? What were the sights, sounds, physical sensations, smells, and circumstances? Who were you with? Was it a phone call, a car crash, an extended illness, or a peaceful passing in one’s sleep? We call these factors the death surround.

Your first experience of death can be moving, or traumatizing, or confusing, or ethereal, but ultimately a milestone that can influence the way you relate to death and grief for the rest of your life.

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I first met death shortly after my fourth birthday. The phone rang in our California kitchen. It was a beige phone, one of those 1980’s phones with a curlicue cord that