Death is Nothing At All
Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped into the next room.
I am I, and you are you:
Whatever we were to each other, we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name;
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone;
Wear no air of solemnity or sorrow;
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we enjoyed together;
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever
The household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect;
Without the ghost of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
What is this death but negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of
sight?
I am but waiting for you,
For an interval, somewhere, very near
Just around the corner.
All is well.
-- by Harry Scott-Holland
Today, we say good-bye to one courageous young man who died in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Please join me over the fold to honor and remember Corporal Gilberto A. Meza.
Corporal Gilberto A. Meza: The light of his family
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Cpl. Gilberto A. Meza, 21, of Oxnard, Calif., died Oct. 6 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.
Reading about the life of Gilberto Meza, it's clear that he was a young man who was just hitting his stride. His family describes him as an outgoing, positive person, a "happy guy, who loved to laugh and joke around."
Like so many people his age, the future seemed full of possibilities, but Gilberto was unsure which direction was right for him. Then four years ago, at the tender age of seventeen, Gilberto chose to go into the military, and enlisted in the Army two years later, in October, 2005.
From the Ventura County Star:
Ray Gonzales, an assistant principal at Rio Mesa High School, remembered Gilberto as "a tough kid" who "got into a scrape or two once in a while."
"Like a lot of ninth- and 10th-graders, he was not as mature as you'd like him to be, but he really started to turn it around and go after the bigger picture," Gonzales said this week.
Family members laughed knowingly when told the story, adding that the Army solidified Gilberto's transformation to a more serious and focused man.
Those who knew him understood why Gilberto was thriving in the Army. His older brother, Rigo, told Santa Barbara news station, KEYT.com, that Gilberto "loved discipline," and "liked to be a leader, never a follower."
"This was like a career move for him," his 22-year-old brother, Rigo Meza, said Thursday. "That was his life."
Even the Army's strict rules regarding uniforms appealed to him. As his stepfather, Guadalupe Sanchez, explained to the Ventura County Star, Gilberto always made an effort to dress well, no matter what he was doing or where he was going.
Gilberto relished life in a uniform, probably because he loved dressing up — even to get a quart of milk at the corner market. "He was very picky about his presentation," Sanchez said.
His family members say Gilberto described Army life as hard work, but told them he enjoyed it so much that he planned to re-enlist. After a brief visit with his family earlier in the summer, Gilberto deployed to Iraq a few weeks ago.
In a poignant interview with KEYT, Gilberto's mother, Silvia Martinez, told a translator that she spoke to her son recently and he told her not to worry because everything was fine and he would be coming home soon. Through her tears, she added that she never expected him to come home this way.
Family members say they did not oppose Gilberto's decision to join the Army, because it made him happy. "It was his dream to go," his mother said. As his stepfather told the Ventura Star County: "He made his own decisions," Sanchez said. "To me, he went as a hero."
In the KEYT interview, the reporter describes Gilberto as "the light of his family." May his light forever shine on those who knew and loved him, and may he be remembered as a hero forever.
The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count reports that total number of US casualties confirmed by the Department of Defense is now 3819, with 4 additional deaths pending notification of relatives, for a total of 3823. The DoD news releases can be found here. Other sites have stories, video, pictures and remembrances, including: Honor the Fallen and Spread the Word: Iraq-Nam, which is maintained by Kossack spread the word IRAQ NAM.
All these service people had friends and loved ones. Please visit the Iraq Veterans Memorial for a moving look at how a few of their survivors remember them. It will break your heart.
If you'd like to help our soldiers, consider sponsoring a soldier at TroopCarePackage.com or anysoldier.com. Operation Helmet and Fisher House are also wonderful organizations that offer additional opportunity to help out American soldiers.
Finally, if you would like to assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Animal companions can provide such solace and comfort.
About the IGTNT series:
IGTNT stands for "I Got the News Today." The phrase most likely refers to the Beatles’ song, and it is meant to symbolize that terrible knock on the door that any number of families got today, bringing with it the news that a loved one has died. IGTNT is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind.
Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, silvercedes, MsWings, noweasels, blue jersey mom, chacounne, twilight falling, Wee Mama, greenies, labwitchy, roses, joyful, sistwo and me, moneysmith.
If you would like to help out with IGTNT -- even once a month -- please get in touch with silvercedes, Sandy on Signal, noweaselsor monkeybiz.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.