When a person dies

By Shahidah Scott 
 

In my eyes when a person dies he or she is not dead their just in a new world. How they lived their life in one world affects how they will be in the new world. So the state of a person’s mind at death is important because it determines whether or not their soul will rest in peace. 
          

Ever since I was a little kid, anything pertaining to ghost or sprits intrigued me. I love watching shows that go and investigate haunted places on earth. It fascinates me how someone can be dead yet alive in their own way. They also give me a better understanding of what it actually means to be dead. I believe that death is not the end; it’s the beginning of a new life. Someone’s life after death may change but the person dead may not. Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you get a new sprit. Death simply means that your sprit is released from your physical form.  
           

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I had my first experience viewing a dead man in a casket. There was supposed to be a funeral held at my church, that hadn’t started yet. My mother and aunts were down stairs in the kitchen cooking for after the funeral. I always roamed around the church by myself. I happened to go into the church sanctuary where I found the dead man in the casket. The casket was positioned directly in the center of the pulpit and it was open. No one else was in the sanctuary besides me and the dead man. I didn’t know the man in the casket. I did know that he was dead, and it didn't bother me. I don't remember how long I was in there with the dead man, until the pastor of my church walked in. 
     

Reverend Grant was the pastor at that time and he saw me staring into the casket and asked "You're not scared?" I replied "Of what?” He said "The man in the casket I replied  "No".
   
      

Reverend Grant just looked at me with this amazement in his face and walked away. Reverend Grant went down stairs and told my mother about the conversation he had with me. She just looked at him and smiled, because if no one else understood me she did. This was probably the first time that someone saw how I viewed things in life. The source of my thinking comes from the way I was raised. I was taught to think for myself and not let others think for me.
     

A person's mind at the state of death affects where their soul will go after he or she is dead. The man lying in the casket had a facial expression that read free. So in my opinion I would think that the man died peacefully in his bed, and that his sprit was in heaven at peace.