Do not be afraid that life is but momentary light between two eternities of darkness. Just like how you do not remember the before, you cannot take anything to the after. Mine and yours are no exception. It is but a transient spark, and so ours all together - that is a constellation of many flickers. Find comfort in the simultaneity. I am in the beginning of my light; it coincides with the end of my grandmother’s. 

My Ma-ma was born on the 22nd of the 11th month of the year 1944. For those who are born on days like these, it is a sign the universe prefers to give you things in doubles: which is why fifty-seven years after she was born, the heavens made my bones from the same stardust they had selected for hers. Yes, they even made my birthday out of the same numbers. On the 4th day of the 1st month of the year 2002, they gave her, me. To this day, everything I am is sewn from the scraps of the cloth they cut for her. She waited a long time for me to arrive, and while doing so lived many, many years. She went to grade school, learned English, got married, and birthed three sons. She grew old, and still, she waited. It seemed like nothing would ever come. 

But to the heavens, the timing was near immediate. Inhale. Exhale. She went first, and then I followed.