They say the death of a parent puts you in time because that means there's now no generation standing between you and ordinary death: you're next. I don't buy it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
To a father, when a child dies, the future dies; to a child when a parent dies, the past dies.
When my father died, my mother was still alive. And I think when your second parent dies, there is that shock: 'Oh man, I'm an orphan.' There's also this relief: It's done; it's finished; it's over.
Families survive, one way or another. You have a tie, a connection that exists long after death, through many lifetimes.
Mortality means you don't have forever to work things out. You can live your life unexamined but then on the last day you're going to think: 'I've left things a little late.'
If you lose a parent, no matter at what age, every five or 10 years you have a different way of missing them and a different way of getting on with your life.
Parents, however old they and we may grow to be, serve among other things to shield us from a sense of our doom. As long as they are around, we can avoid the fact of our mortality; we can still be innocent children.
The passage of time is a continuing thing. At 18, you're going to live forever, and you are definitely not at 52, so that is a recurring topic. I still think it's the main stuff.
Death can't be so bad if mom went through it. It makes it easier for the child to follow.
Having a child is sowing the seeds of your own obsolescence: birth is the fuse that leads to that other thing. You appear, you replace yourself, you die.
The idea is to die young as late as possible.