The End of Noah

In my eyes, my Father had always been a great and powerful man. He had struggled with the hardest task of his life, and even though he got lost along the way, he came back to us. But today I learned that no matter how strong they are, all great men will eventually die. I never thought in my forty- three years of life that I would see the day my father died. He was not young, he was sixty-nine, yet he did not seem that old. We had been sleeping when Ham pounded on the door, startling us. Ila went to go check on the frightened kids while I ran to see what was going on.

"Mother sent me to get you," Ham said frantically, "something is wrong with Father."

I told Ila where I was going and ran back with Ham. When I got to their hut, I saw Mother kneeling over Father, burning incenses in her hands.

"He would not stop shaking." She told me calmly.

"Is he dead?" I asked her.

"I do not know." She replied.

Mother stayed calm as she prayed. Her courage never ceased to amaze me. I looked down and gazed upon my Father. His hair, what was left of it at least, was a mess. His eyes looked glazed and he had drool dangling from his mouth.

"Mother I do not think he is breathing." I said cautiously.

"I do not think so either." Ham put in.

Mother checked his pulse and her face dropped. He had been ill for quite some time and we all knew this day was going to come, but I never imagined losing him. Japheth came and took Mother to his house and while Ham and I dug a grave, Ila prepared Father's body to be buried.

"I cannot believe he is gone." Adah, twenty-four, said later that night.

After we buried Father and put the young ones to bed, Ila and I had all of our older kids come over. All of them were close to Father, but Adah and Naomi were taking his death the hardest. Naomi, now nineteen, was with child, much to my dismay, which Ila said was affecting her. Adah, on the other hand, had been very close to her grandfather. She spent a lot of her time with him as a child, and as an adult he taught her everything he knew about protecting the land. Evi and Elijah were upset, but much like me they both wanted to appear strong and did not show much emotion. Thaddeus had taken comfort in Ila's arms and was now asleep. The other children were upset but were able to sleep and go on as per usual. Micah was only eleven and Dinah and Miriam were nine; they were all old enough to know what happened, but still young enough to not quite understand it all. Levi and Tobias, who were seven and five respectively, were still quite naïve.

"Your father and I understand this is hard to take in, just as it was when Asher passed. That is why we wanted to bring you all here to talk about it." Ila said. "So ask us any question you have or just tell us how you are feeling. Do not be ashamed to cry either."

"How did it happen?" Elijah, now twenty-one, asked me.

"From the looks of it I would say a seizure." I replied.

"What is that?" Naomi asked.

"It is when your body shakes uncontrollably, that is all I know." Ila told her.

I had taken Thaddeus to his room and when I came back my heart broke at what I saw. Adah and Evi were holding each other, crying, while Ila had both Naomi and Elijah in her embrace. I walked over to my eldest daughters and took them into my arms.

"We will all miss him, but as long as you keep him in your hearts, he will never really go away." Ila said wisely.