On July 24, 2019, my first pet I ever had transitioned into the after life. My pet was a male blue betta fish, named Henry. I named him after my dad Charles Henry Hodges, Jr. I heard a noise yesterday morning as I was getting dressed for work and I believe that it was Henry falling over in the fish bowl. I told my mom that he had passed and she asked if I was ok and I honestly didn’t know how I felt. Most of the day I didn’t think about this part of my morning as to not get sad. When I got home from class and let my mom know via text, she responded and asked how I was. That instantly made me remember that Henry had transitioned. I still didn’t have words, feelings, or know what to do, so I went to sleep.

In my dreams, my Dad appeared and I got a chance to speak with him. There was some piece of paper on it that had some information about his health status that said 2016. I asked him about it and he shared that he lasted longer than he expected to. I am not sure what that meant, but I immediately got mad and started yelling at him. I was asking him why did he not work harder to take care of his health and share more with me. In this moment of yelling at him, I woke up. I automatically knew I was having this dream because of my fish passing. I will admit that I think he was sick for a little bit and I neglected to research what could have been wrong with him. I could have possibly prevented him from transitioning when he did.

What I take away from both of these intertwined experiences is that we need to take better care of our health, check on the health status of our loved ones and not accept surface level answers because here could be a deeper issue at stake. Therefore, we to push, prod, and nag about our and their health status, so we can continue to live our purpose in life.

 

Challenge of the Week: Take a loved one to the Doctor and stay with them as a support system.