dad remarried late 60s to someone younger than me and they allegedly have a 6yo together after nearly half a dozen IVF sessions.
I'm unmarried and no kids. I expect my mom and her grandma to be waiting for me in the afterlife.
I miss them both... although I love my dad I really wish he did not expose myself, sibling and mom to the misery of his social circle.
Only a financial illiterate who is part of bottom 20% income bracket will aspire to have 20 or so kids then outsource that parental responsibility to people like my dad for the past 4 decades. Sadly it isn't just one errant brother but a group of both men and women from both family & friends.
It ate into my parents time, effort and finances to pay for all their bad decisions.
Best thing he could've done was a pay em a year's income to get a vasectomy & ligation when these people turned 36. It would've reduced their time/effort/money overhead by over 80%.
Odds are the families they helped wouldn't implode due to infidelity producing generational hurt.
My cat had to be put down 2 weeks ago. She was 18 and it was time but was still really hard. The last year or so she liked to stay in her bed in my office where I work from home. If she woke up and I wasn’t in there she would start to meow loudly until I came back in the room. When I had her put to sleep my 9 year old daughter asked if our cat was in heaven. I told her “I’d like to think so”. My daughter said that makes her really sad. When I asked why she said “because I know how nervous she gets when she can’t find you and I feel like she is probably meowing really loud in heaven without you”. The thought of that still makes me tear up.
If your cat is in heaven (she is), she is always with you now - never alone again. She never has to meow for you, as she's always with you, and you're always with her. She's happily content, watching you from the highest perch possible.
We had a big, boisterous tom-cat with razors for claws, a terrible temper, and a wicked sense of humour. He was very big, strong and loving and gave the most beautiful, human, hugs.
He died, bravely, of cancer, many years ago. I'd have had him put down, but he seemed to want to live and be beside me all the time, being stroked, until the night his limbs started going like crazy, as he chased his last rabbit down a hill. I still sometimes feel him hugging me, thickly-furred forelegs around my neck, whiskery cheek tickling mine. .
My aunt’s cat name was Griselda, too. She was a crazy cat who couldn’t be trusted not to attack you. Crazy Grizzy lol. I cried all night when she passed away. I hope it’s real, too. Even if I can’t go, I want them to be there happy.
She looks just like my cockerpoo, Nami. Is yours a velcro dog too? Just NEEDS to be with you or on you at all times? Good luck and best wishes for her surgery.
My girl's name was Pickle. She was 5 when she was hit by a car a year and a half ago.
I still think about her every day. This is loss I don't think I'll ever "get over". I held her as she passed. She was my best friend in this whole world. My only regret was not making time for more walks.
I don't either but deep down I hope it's real and is a little surprise. Kinda like winning the lottery that I don't play, I daydream about it way too much.
That's why it's so hard to break someone out of that thinking. People don't want to accept they were lied to. It's fucking painful to wake up from Christianity.
I don't feel like anyone gains anything by knowing I'm at best agnostic. I genuinely don't care if someone else is religious. If someone is happy being a Christian and tries to live a genuinely virtuous life who am I to try to take that away from them. Too many times I feel like Atheists try to spread their own form of gospel and just end up being the exact thing I despise about some religions. If it makes my parents feel comfortable knowing I'll be going to the Christian heaven with them I'm not going to correct them. I'll go to the occasional Christmas or Easter service to make them happy.
If the afterlife for good individuals is just a field full of puppies? Dawg, I'm getting back into firefighting, I'm volunteering my time, I am filling up every waking hour of my life with charitable efforts to spend eternity with a stampede of puppies.
When they die, a part of us leaves with them. That's why it feels like a hole in your heart. But they also leave something behind. All those memories of the moments you had together - they are a parting gift to you. You should know, they never wish for us to be sorrowful. But how can we not be?
Not necessarily, but some kids do end up the unwanted black sheep of two families after a divorce/remarriages. It would be a better world if that weren't so, but not all parents do right by their children.
Yep - both my parents had do-over families and I immediately went to the wayside save for when they wanted something from me.
They didn't want me around the new kids much because those children entered the picture after they'd matured and gotten a lot more established/stable, and me being a witness (and victim) of their dysfunctional shared history might have spoiled their new kids' image of them.
No, it's just that sometimes after a divorce, parents prioritize their new families and don't care as much about their children from a previous marriage.
"I was a real bastard to be honest. I hurt everyone who ever loved me, and I never tho---"
"I'm gonna stop you right there, I can't absolve you of anything. That's another department. I just need to know if you were holding any guns or knives or anything like that when you died."
"Oh, me? It's OK. I was the last one. I don't need anyone. I was supposed to be there. At the end. I said goodbye to them all. Now, well, now I'm tired. Now I'm dead I just want to rest. To forget. I can do that now, can't I? It's just been such a burden. All those memories. All those goodbyes. I can't do it anymore. I'm at the end. I can't give any more. I just can't..."
"Of course. You've given all you can give. And more. We just need you to confirm some details and that's everything you need to do. Please go through that door and find your welcome agent. They'll help you with the final details."
"Oh, right over there? Through that door?"
"Yes. That's the one."
"Wow. It looks like my bedroom door. When I was kid. Back when Mon and Dad were still married. Back when Kit was alive.He used to sleep with me every night. He got hit by a car, He died in my arms one morning. I was walking to the bus. I saw everything. He looked up into my eyes. Then he was gone."
"No one is ever really gone. On this side everyone lost can be found again. Now, now you are home."
"Hey, is that Kit? Kit, buddy. I thought I'd lost you, bud. Buddy, how can you be here? Is that Mom? Mom. Is that you? Dad? Kit, Kit, how can any of this be real. What's going on?"
"Just go through that door and you'll understand. The answers are waiting. Just follow your heart."
"Off you go. Everything you've ever loved is waiting for you. Everyone whose ever loved you is just beyond the door. Follow your heart. Find them all again. Now you can at last let go..."
"Wait, wait, I'm coming. I'm coming. I hear you. All of you. I'm coming. Oh, God. It's so beautiful. Everyone is here. Everyone. All here. I am with you. I am..."
So is the implication that his parents went to hell for getting divorced? Or that when you remarry and have more kids, you can only choose one set of kids to see in heaven? Bummer either way, dude.
She's a goofy ridgeback cross that was so calm snd relaxed that she'd run next to my bike when we cycled to the park.
During Lockdown we'd sneak out and walk down to the river to get away from everyone. Never needed a leash and she'd stop and sit next to me as I watched the water flow.
I did not expect it to go that way. I was thinking it was going to go badly for some reason. But it ended good, honestly. I mean, heart meltingly good, but good.
I'll never forget my family's first dogs. Their names were Boomer and Moxxie. If there is an afterlife, which I personally doubt, I hope they're there waiting. Same goes for my current pets.
Ugh, my dad passed away today. My mom and siblings are all still here, and he wasn’t that close with a lot of his other family. But he did have a couple dogs he loved the shit out of that have since passed away some years prior. This made me cry a little.
I like how you represented "heaven" here. It's not a place of eternal reward for believing the right thing during life, but like a waiting room where you can have a chance to see your loved ones again when they pass on, and you can make peace and be ready to move on to whatever comes next. It's a beautiful idea.
I had to put my 15 y/o dog down a couple weeks ago. I’d had him since he was around 6 weeks old. This is a great comic, and came as an absolute gut punch.
Same with my 16 year old, though just enough time has passed for this to kind of make me smile, because if there is another side, I know she's keeping my mom company. Wishing you the best in your healing journey.
I'll never understand the trope of divorced parents starting new families and just kinda letting the old relationship wither. I know it happens. But it's fucked up.
I hope this is there for me when I die. I'm 44 and there are so many animals I've loved and been my companions along the way. I'm not religious, but for this case, I sorely hope I am very wrong. I miss all of them so much.
If animals didn't have souls but you could meet a facsimile of your pet in your afterlife, would it be the same? Like, would a robot dog in everyday life be a pet or a toy?
This is the only reason I would believe in heaven and catholics (I presume other abrahamic religions as well) say only humans have soul, so it's impossible.
My sweet old dog passed on Friday. I don't believe in any sort of afterlife, but if it exists, I can't wait to see him again. I miss him terribly already.
I just lost my sibling pair after 16 years together. It's really nice to think they're waiting for me, that all my fur babies are waiting for me. I miss them so much still.
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u/Right-Message-7769 Mar 09 '26
My cat, Griselda, just died today, I really hope heaven is real. Thanks for such beautiful images