A Sparrow Falls

Michael Jackson is dead. I'm sorry that I'm a little bit behind with the news. But then, so is Marjorie Jones. I guess you're fed up with hearing about Michael Jackson so let me tell you what I know about Marjorie Jones.

She was 84. She used to live in Spain during the winter and in England during the summer. The English winters were too cold and damp for her and the Spanish summers too hot. She also wanted to avoid catching a cold because her chest was not the best.

Not long before she died she was admitted to hospital in Spain. Her family was concerned for her. Although she was discharged after only one night they felt things were not right. So they moved forward her summer home coming so that they could arrange for her to be seen by medical staff whose first language was English.

On the flight home - probably - she picked up a chest infection. She was admitted to the local hospital for aggressive antibiotic treatment. She died after a couple of days from severe respiratory failure. She died the same day as Michael Jackson.

So, why am I sharing this with you?

If you watch 'The West Wing' series 2 - 'Under the Shadow of Two Gunmen' - CJ, the White House Press Secretary is briefing about an attack in which the President gets shot. She lists off all the other victims of gun crime that took place in the same time frame as that attack. She does that to make a point about the gun laws in the US. I'm telling you about Marjorie to make another point.

Michael and Marjorie were not the only ones to die that day. Many were killed in car crashes. Some by roadside bombs in the troubled parts of the world. For others it was expected as their lives reached their natural conclusions. Some took matters into their own hands because the pain - physical or mental - had become too much. And those who loved them, knew them, cherished them, were sorrowful at their passing.

Not all of these had the benefit of a worldwide television audience - or even the population of a Wiltshire village lining their main street - to mark their passing. Most would have had a simple ceremony where family and friends would gather to share, and remember, and grieve.

But what of those in sub Saharan Africa who simple fall to the ground as the strength leaves their frail bodies? Or the faceless, invisible people in a Glasgow tenement who die when their kidneys fail to remove the excess of alcohol and lie undiscovered for days, weeks, months or even years? And there are those who simply disappear all over the world, in every society, because they are truly and completely alone. Do you note their passing?

Do I?

All I know is that someone does - because he cares for the two sparrows that are sold for three farthings.