I took one last look at him before a doctor walked in.
"So sorry for your loss." He spoke. We both have him a curt nod before I looked at him questioningly. "I'm just here to confirm his death. It's procedure." He spoke. We both stepped away from the sides of the bed, letting the doctor through and after listening to Walter's chest with a stethoscope and using a little flash light to look at his eyes, he frowned and nodded at us before looking at the nurse standing at the door of the room.
"Walter Adams. Age 23. Patient ID number 228375. Diagnosed with cancer on the 25th of March, 2018. Admitted to palliative care unit on the 16th of June, 2018. Death on the17th of July, 2018 at 11:24am. Confirmation of death given by Dr. Kaleb Laverton." The nurse wrote everything down and nodded at him when she was done.
"Once again, I'm sorry for your loss. When you're ready, please go to the reception and tell the nurses about your funeral arrangements. Walter will have to be placed into the hospital morgue for one hour as per procedure. They will come to collect him shortly. You will need to organize the rest."
He left shortly after and I sat down beside Ahmad on the couch in the waiting area as everyone went in to the room one by one to see Walter for one final time.
Ahmad called up the imam of our masjid and organized a funeral car to come to the hospital in two hours time.
Soon later, two men came with a stroller, a black body bag lay open on top of it and in the most casual and routine way, they went into the room, shutting the doors behind them before emerging five minutes later with the body bag zipped up and full.
I broke down into tears and slid down the wall into a crouching position as I watched them stroll Walter down the hallway and away from us.
"Come on, bro. Let's go home." Ayman spoke, his own cheeks soaked with tears, his nose red and hair disheveled.
"It's crazy, Ayman. He's gone. I still can't believe it." I whispered, my voice croaky.
In the background I faintly heard Ahmad tell the other brothers that he would be ordering pizza for iftar for them all to serve at the masjid.
"Come on, bro." Ayman insisted, holding my arm and pulling me up. As soon as the men turned the corner with the stroller and out of our view, I let Ayman pull me up. We walked back past the room he was just in, nurses now in there putting on fresh sheets.
SubhanAllah.
One man dies, life goes on and the next one awaiting death takes his place.
This was the cycle of life. The world didn't stop for anybody and it was terrifying to think that soon I would be in Walter's position, leaving the dunya only to face Allah ﷻ and be questioned about every single thing.
On the Day when Allah will resurrect them all and inform them of what they did. Allah had kept account of it, while they forgot it; and Allah is, over all things, Witness.
(Mujadila, verse 6)
Walter died, he was left with his book of deeds, and we were already moving on, planning his funeral and speaking about iftar.
"Brother, janazah is after 'asr. Burial is at 4pm. I'm going to order pizza for the ikhwaan afterwards and we'll eat iftar at the masjid together, yeah?"
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Finding Islam
Teen Fiction-- Life works in mysterious ways. King Patterson never really thought about life in depth. He did not care much for his future. He did not plan. There was no use. He would be six feet under today, tomorrow or the day after that. He took each day as...
36: Gone
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