The hearse
I was returning home a little after noon on Tuesday, January 22nd when I saw a sight that I have seen before. There is a nursing home/hospice adjacent to the hospital which is adjacent to my local subway station, only a couple minutes` walk down the hill from my apartment. When I passed it on that Tuesday a hearse was just pulling away, I supposed with the body of a resident who had passed away during the night or the morning. This juxtaposition of life and death feels odd, to think that while I was going about my everyday life selfishly absorbed in all the mediocre bothers of the day the end of life was falling just a few meters away, across the way. The car was a simple black vehicle, not the elaborate jalopy used for funerals. The facility`s staff - doctors, nurses, others - were lined up on the sidewalk and bowing to the hearse as it pulled away, saying good-bye to their client, or apologizing to him/her with deep bows. Who knows? If the action is properly translated into English it would probably be a bit of both.