Grave

My first real taste of life occurred one morning when I was suddenly awoken by an early morning phone call telling me that my dad had passed away. Halfway through my senior year in college, and I immediately had to leave for Alexandria, Egypt, the homeland of my parents. When I visited my dad's grave, I noticed a lot of things. Although I never was fond of graveyards, it actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Muslim cemeteries are interesting, way different than the ones back in America.

Every thing was so peaceful and symbolic. But I was a little creeped out at some things. When we (my three aunts & I) first arrived, there was a cat sitting in front of the main gates. I, being the cat lover that I am, made little psspsspss sounds to the cat. It looked at me--and it was missing an eye! (Ack!)

"Woah! Pet Cemetery!" I thought to myself. We walked inside and were immediately greeted by the caretaker. He, like the cat, was also Missing An Eye! (Double Ack!!) What was this place? (Besides "AWESOME!" you might say?) It wasn't really missing, but hella glaucoma/cataract style. Same eye as the cat though.       

We walked through the paths and I noticed immediately that the ground was hard like cement, covered with dirt/sand, instead of lush green grass. I imagined the people in the ground trying to rest as every one who walked down those cement paths made footsteps like tap shoes. In the old days, people didn't use to be buried. The first few paths were lined with rows of mausoleums. Inside the windows/gates of those little houses, you could see the coffins. You just know there are people totally inside.

Finally we made it to my dad's grave, and for some reason I just couldn't stop smiling. I felt happy that he was in a better place. He died in the best possible way in the best place on Earth. May God forgive him. Nowadays, people are buried in the ground and a giant stone slab is placed over the area so you can't walk over where the person is buried. My dad had a marble casing over his grave, about three feet high by six feet long, and two feet wide. He was buried in a family plot with his father, which is where he always wanted to be. My dad was 64 years old and his dad was about age 61at death. So now they're in there together at about the same age. My aunt (dad's older sister) told me she had a dream about their dad. He came to her and said how happy he was to have my dad with him again.

Overlooking the grave was the College of Science building where my dad went to school. Next to that was the first hospital my dad worked at as a doctor. I don't think it could have been more perfect. As we were praying for him, there were two birds that kept flying over my head. I like to think it was my dad and his dad.

There were also some more strange things. For instance, on the ground next to the grave was a cigarette butt. I wanted to pick up any garbage on the ground, but that, I left for my dad. All the years of his smoking, I don't know, it just seemed like it was meant to be there. Some thing else was on the ground. What I thought was more garbage, I thought to myself, "Do people come here to eat fried chicken? What's this bone?" It was a human finger bone. (Triple Ack!!)

In case you're wondering, no it wasn't my dads. This one looked really old, but still, it belonged to some one. Other than the mausoleums, Muslims aren't buried in coffins usually, just straight into the ground with usually only a simple white cloth wrapped around them.  I guess when new graves get dug up, the old dirt with whatever remains left gets mixed in. My aunt didn't seemed phased at all when I pointed it out. She just picked it up and buried it.

We weren't there for long. As we were walking out I noticed a baby girl waddling around, no more than 2 years old. She must have been related to the caretaker because he was walking with her. I thought it was funny how she must have been brought up here and will live a great deal of her childhood in a Cemetery, not even realizing where she was and what type of a place it was. Imagine your home is a Cemetery, and you're not even dead.