Death and the Smart Ass Cripple

More of the same of the last few weeks. Culled American Jewish Life even further by not just separating pages with my stuff on them, but actually cutting them out.
Got a phone call from my Cincinnati Sis, Marifran K., who told me that the son of our mutual cousin, Kevin B., has taken his own life. He died last Tuesday, the day before his thirtieth birthday. What a tragedy!  I asked Marifran if she thought it might help if my sister, Betty, called the grieving parents. She believed so and I called Betty to give her the number.
I've always loved Dylan Thomas' poem, And Death Shall Have no Dominion. The title, repeated in the poem, is from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans and, I assume, promotes the idea of an afterlife. Thomas doesn't, but he asserts that human beings live on in our memories and--more fuzzily, I think--in their spirits. I connect it to Shakespeare's "Full Fathom Five," from The Tempest with those exquisite lines, "Nothing of him that doth fade/But doth suffer a sea-change/Into something rich and strange."
Maybe that's faint comfort, but to me, it's comfort.
Note: I was delighted a few months ago to come across Mike Ervin's blog "Smart Ass Cripple."  It looks as if Mike is more or less immobile--not sure why--but his writing is hysterical, as well as--okay, sassy and smart ass as they come.  He's also on Facebook, so I was able to see pictures of him and his wife, who's Asian.  He's in a wheelchair, but I'm not sure if she's handicapped--uh, disabled--uh, physically challenged--oh, hell, I'll say it: Crippled!
Thanks for freeing me up psychically enough to write that, Mike.