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When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Shades of Us
September 29, 2016

By Tochukwu Eziukwu

When I heard the news of her death, I knew life will never be the same again for him. I knew that no amount of words, no river of tears, no number of company, will ever fill the void her demise has left in his heart.

Life couldn’t have been more cruel. But life has always been cruel, just that we seem to be oblivious of its cruelty when it is happening to others.

Didn’t you hear about the little baby that was thrown away at the road side by her teenage mother; that little baby who will spend the rest of her days not knowing her father or mother?

Didn’t you hear about the 5 year old little boy who just lost his parents to a ghastly road accident and will now spend the rest of his days living under the mercy of relatives?

What about that widow that just lost her only child to an unknown sickness?

Do you know her? Didn’t you hear about it?

I’m sure you heard about it, but it probably was just another sad story for you, another bad news.

You may even have thought these events were taking place somewhere in mars and not on planet earth; after all they were too unreal to be happening on earth.

But what you never realized was that somewhere in people’s homes, real tears were being shed, that somewhere in people’s heart, red blood was dripping freely.

You never realized that somewhere in people’s memories, wounds that may never get healed were being inflicted.

What you never realized was that these were not just stories, but real life tragedies that were happening to real people living in a real world.

Real tears!

Real pain!

Real life!

Life has always been cruel and will always be cruel. This is not about being negative or pessimistic.

We’ve seen it happen in the past. It is happening today. Now what makes you think it won’t happen again tomorrow?

Sure it will!

Again, don’t judge me as being negative because I’m not. I’m just being forced to accept a reality I have always wished wasn’t true; a reality that bad things happen to good people.

But I have seen it happen. I have seen bad things happen to good people over and over again. The first time I saw it happen, I thought it was a mistake. But then it happened again and it has kept on happening.

A few days ago it happened again. He lost his wife, after they lost their baby; a newly married couple.

He is a good man, and people speak highly of him. She was a good woman, whom people spoke and are still speaking well of. Why then should life be so cruel to them?

Now she is gone, but he is left here with nothing but just tears; and to think that it was just about a year after their marriage makes it more heart-wrenching.

Such pain!

Such agony!

Now he is in tears, and everyone is weeping with him.

The questions are shooting out from every side. The same questions I’ve always heard when bad things happen to good people.

Everybody is seeking for answers; answers they may never find.

I have not lived long enough to know so many things, but one thing I have lived long enough to know is that there are questions we may never have answers for.

Some may find this hard to accept, especially those of us who believe that everything in life has to make sense.

It is even harder for those of us who believe that because of our faith in God, there has to be answers for everything; an explanation as to why bad things happen to good people.

But we forget that the moment we assume that position of having answers for everything, then we stop being humans, and therefore assume the status of God, who is all-knowing.

But we can only be humans!

It might be humbling for some of us to accept that we don’t know everything after all, that there are things we may never have an explanation for, questions we may never have answers for; questions like why bad things happen to good people, questions like why she had to die like that.

Life has always been cruel and will always be deemed cruel, especially when we lose a loved one.

But for some of us, death is not the cessation of our lives, but the beginning of a better life in a better place.

There we may find answers to all of our questions, but till then, let’s accept the fact that life can be cruel to anybody, any day, any time; and we would be left with nothing but questions without answers.

In memory of a beloved sister.