patrick.net

It depends on whether your parents were a blessing or a curse. The cursed ones get no mourning, just relief when they die.

I’m not familiar with that many Sikh beliefs. Is there an afterlife for your culture? For myself, I imagine death as a transition to another life of purpose and meaning. It’s the answer to the Final Mystery of Life and you only receive it by going through that door. I believe that our souls are pieces of the Divine, granted purchase on this world and housed in flesh which we manipulate and which manipulates us. When we die, that piece which makes us Divine goes back to the One which sent it.

Yes there is concept of after life very similar to you described.
Since my early years I had equal respect for science and faith inspite of obvious conflicts. I see both force for good in general.

I can’t be 100% committed to believe in after life.
As you said that “door” has entry and no exit so nobody came back to tell the story of heaven/hell.

There are lot of conflicting emotions about this whole thing, But I am proud of my parents extremely modest but very honest life truly as recommended by Sikh faith(labor and share). They are pillar of strength never compromised on principles for any greed.
I am happy that they will get good place if after life exists and it values good humans and no corruption.

Ceffer says

It depends on whether your parents were a blessing or a curse

Man is this ever a loaded statement. As a parent, even if you are one of the shittier parents on the planet, it is 100% non-trivial to keep kids alive. And of course, you DID make the choice to bring the kid into the world (presumably except for rape), so it's not like you are off the hook. I still don't excuse bad parents behavior, but after having kids myself, I sure do understand it a lot better. And I have pretty darn good kids.

What is more amazing to me is that seeing first hand how kids can just 100% drive you bonkers, how is there no universal resource or education to push your mettle and get you prepped for being a parent!?!?! That stupid home economics take care of an egg thing is like .1% of what you need. We don't even let a dental hygenist floss your teeth without a certificate course and state license, but our only resource for parents it to go drop off the banshees at daycare for 1/3 of the day? And then jobs don't even pretend to behave differently for employees with or without kids. This is one of the biggest parts of our society, and the extent to which we recognize it is to give a child tax credit, and then NO OTHER SOCIETAL STRUCTURE until the kid hits 5 and you can drop them off at school?

I'm not saying taxpayers should somehow step up and take over childcare for parents..it's just... a few parks designed for ages 2 and up does not really seem to be the supporting service that will keep parents sane, or children safe.. or get kids on the "wow, my parents took amazing care of me" bandwagon.

Both of my parents are deceased.
I think of them often.
I was extremely sad at the loss, especially of my mother; my father outlived her.

One of the beautiful things about world is that love is free and grow more you distribute.

Providing unnecessary stuff and in the process not finding time for love is bad parenting.

Europeans understand importance of parenting and they let parents paid time off after birth as it is investment in your country.
As @Zak said bringing life to this world is not easy and full of sacrifices.

If I am the policy maker.
I will have retirement age around 30-40 and you can have kids during this years and no retirement age later. Most of the people destroy their health during those years and produce unfit for society kids.

My parents didn't leave me an inheritance of mansions, planes, Caligulan Splendor, hookers, blow, political immunities and diplomatic passports. I blame them for that.

It's hard no matter what. You do what you can. Most of all, spend more time with them if possible.

Lost both my parents in 2008, a few months apart from leukemia and a brain tumor. I still have not entirely recovered and get sad about it at times.

One day at a time. My dad's been dead for 6yrs and it sneaks up on me periodically when thing remind me of him.

Patrick says

It's hard no matter what. You do what you can. Most of all, spend more time with them if possible.

Lost both my parents in 2008, a few months apart from leukemia and a brain tumor. I still have not entirely recovered and get sad about it at times.

Sorry to hear that.I shiver to think about not having my parents around. I see them everyday for few hours and they live with me.
One thing is guaranteed that nobody will love you more than your parents .. except may be grandparents.

RC2006 says

One day at a time. My dad's been dead for 6yrs and it sneaks up on me periodically when thing remind me of him.

Yeah they say everything heals with time.

Thank you all for sharing. I fret about this a lot.

How do you cope with prospect of losing your parent?

Live in Caligulan splendor with your inheritance.

After another visit to Hospital sinking feeling just deepens.
My only inheritance is love and care my parents provided.I will not trade it with billions $ inheritance and I mean it deep from my heart.

It’s hard to think about. I was 20 when my grandfather passed away and it crushed me. I got blackout drunk for the first and only time in my life. I hadn’t had any close family members pass away up to that point. My great grandmother passed away when I was 7 and I didn’t really comprehend things at that time. My next door neighbor was in a fatal car accident when he was 19 and I was 16 and while I felt bad for the family as they were fantastic people, the kid who got killed was an arrogant prick to me so I didn’t have as strong of feelings as I probably should have.

My parents are still in good health, but closing in on 80. Both their families had people live into their mid 80’s to early 90’s. Neither show signs of dementia nor are they in poor health.

But it’s pretty clear, they’re on the backside of the hill. And I really don’t know what I’m going to do when the inevitable happens. I’m taking them to a large event this weekend that I know they will enjoy. And I guess that’s it. Live the best life possible and spend as much time with them while we can.

Honor your parents while they're alive. If they are suffering at the end make sure you visit and say goodbye.

I last saw my mother the day before xmas eve 1986. She was in hospice and it was devastating to see her suffer. A couple days later she passed and I felt a tremendous amount of relief. She no longer suffered. The nut was gone and all that was left was the worn out shell.

Life is a cycle. Embrace life and don't fear death. Death is as natural and common as birth. We don't cry for loved ones because they are gone but because we are still here without them.

I sometimes feel that good people suffer more than bad ones.
You see in politics etc. there are these cruel people who treated fellow humans like pawns and used “divide and rule” to hilt but still had long healthy lives.(I am not sure about happy, I can’t think of why a “hatred” (Other than for tyranny/cruelty) will bring any happiness “

Sometimes you start to have doubts about existence of God.
Also in Sikh religion the scriptures say “Everything happens with God’s will”.. Why allow suffering if a good soul(God) is in control.