The Sting of Death

I'll be going to a wake later.  My friend's dad passed away due to cardiac arrest.  It's sad when parents die or pass on to the next life.  Whatever you want to call it, the feeling of sadness is the same.  In truth, I've never known loneliness as I did when my mom passed away.  I've never known an emptiness so deep.  So when my single firends talk about being lonely because they don't have a partner, a loved one, a honey, I just shrug my shoulders and in my mind say, "That's nothing.  It can't be compared to how I felt, feel and continue feeling with my mom's passing."  It can't even be compared to any break-up I've experienced.  That kind of sadness fades and you move on.  But this one, it lingers.  At least for me.