Aunt Shannon’s memorial. Small town in Chicago, with my mom, dad, and brother; it was overwhelming. There was so much going on all at one time. My aunt dying, my brother deciding if he’s going to move to Denver for the job he was offered, school starting the next month. It was all too much. We pulled up to the small church after eating the large brunch the hour before. I was slowly and anxiously walk into the black and white memorial with all of the family, I looked around at everyone in the room, the pictures of Shannon throughout her life, getting the feeling of despair. Listening to the stories of her friends and her adventures in the large chapel of the small church we were in made me determine if I should live my life the way I want to before I can’t or before I lose the person I want to live it with.
   

“She was an amazing, courageous person. She brightened the room when she walked in, making everyone smile,” the pastor said, his voice echoing through the large chapel.
   

Shannon’s friends each went up and said something they thought was “totally Shannon.”
   

“She always had to be prepared. For everything. If you were going out of town, she would have the hotel booked and reservations for the restaurants you were going to go to,” Shannon’s friend told us tearfully.
     

The songs they were singing, I didn’t quite understand them as they were from the Hymn, something I don’t know anything about. My aunt Anita, she was tearing up, something I didn’t quite understand at the time.  As I thought about what they were singing, what they could possibly mean, I don’t think I understood what they meant until we were on the road home. I was thinking that maybe I should start going to church more, so I could understand everything that was said that day.
     

Driving out of Chicago, I had the realization that I finally understand what was said in that church. What the priest said about her and what he thought was going to happen in her afterlife. I understood that what they believe, might actually happen. Seeing all the buildings fly by, all as blurs in my vision, as I thought about how I might actually believe in the same thing they do. That I believe there is an afterlife for her.
     

Although I didn’t see her very often, or know much about her, Shannon was still family. She was a kind hearted, hardcore believer that anything could be done. This event made me realize that I need to appreciate what I have and the privileges that I have that other people don’t. Seeing the broken faces and aching hearts of her loved one’s in that room made me think about how this could happen to anyone, at any time.