Death Oblivious to Christmas

"A widespread belief that dying people are able to postpone death until after important dates is simply not true, according to a US study of cancer patients Almost everyone knows a story of someone who, through sheer willpower, held grimly on to life until a certain date. And small studies of specific populations seemed to bear the idea out...

So he embarked on a study of more than 300,000 Ohioans who died of cancer between 1989 and 2000, using the Ohio mortality database. Using Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the patient's birthday as the three "special dates", Young looked for a dip in deaths the week before, with a corresponding peak in the week after. He reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association that he didn't see any effect at all. "Death never takes a holiday," he says. Young speculates that the myth springs from selective memory. Stories about loved ones who "held on" until after the holidays are more memorable than those about the uncle who slipped away in mid-November..."

Death proves oblivious to Christmas, Complete Article.

I called my brother today to thank him for sending me his old FFA jacket from our hometown. I had jettisoned mine when entering ashram life. I had previously mentioned how nice it would be to have one to wear with a "Pedro for President" button. (If you watch DVDs , see "Napolean Dynamite"; don't if you are trying to be "fixed up".) He was gone so I ended up talking to my sister-in-law for a while. Conversation rolled around to dying on Christmas Day, as she had lost a nephew in recent years on Christmas. My own mother-in-law died on Christmas, so my wife always carries that into the Holidays. Over the years I have have met a lot of peole who knew someone who died at Christmas. My mother-in-law was sickly for most of my wife's life, but did manage a visit to NV before she left her body.

"It is important to take to Krsna consciousness immediately, because we do not know how much time is left before death. When your time in this body expires, no one can stop your death. The arrangement of material nature is so strong. You cannot say, "Let me remain." Actually, people sometimes request like that. When I was in Allahabad, an old friend who was very rich was dying. At that time he begged the doctor, "Can't you give me at least four more years to live? I have some plans which I could not finish." You see. This is foolishness. Everyone thinks, "Oh, I have to do this. I have to do that." No. Neither the doctors nor the scientists can check death: "Oh, no, sir. Not four years, not even four minutes. You have to go immediately." This is the law..."

LON 1: God and The Law of Karma