Memento Mori

Oakley had buried far more people than most her age. She’d been through more than most her age. More than most far older than her. She had severe trust issues stemming from losing so many people over the last twenty years of her life. Her life of death led her down a path of being alone. She’d rather be alone than make new friends. People had betrayed her in one way or another. People hadn’t been too kind to her. People who’d let their actions speak for her. She didn’t mind being alone. She knew people wouldn’t understand her perspective anyway. 

She’d become a Public Speaker while living in South Florida. She’d gone on a mission to destigmatize death. To remind people death is part of life. That all living beings die. Memento Mori being something she’d begun living by. Remember that you must die. It’d become a taboo topic in many ways. A topic that people had become uncomfortable with over time. Something people didn’t want to be confronted with. She’d left people thinking after finishing her speech. She reminded people death comes for everyone. She crossed the challenge lines by normalizing death in a far different way than others that talked about death. She’d often leave people thinking by talking about death differently than most. 

Oakley was overwhelmed by the responses she received after her speeches. People saw death differently after listening to her story. That grieving a loved one's death isn’t linear. There’s no time frame on it either. One learns to live with it over time. It’s love we can no longer give to that loved one. That we’re also grieving the life we’ll have without that loved one as well. Along with so many other factors while grieving that loved one's death. The stigma surrounding death, dying and everything related to it were stigmas stemming from societal standards that turned it into a taboo topic. Societal standards that had said death is something that shouldn’t be talked about. Nobody could pinpoint why death was deemed as a taboo topic. 

Oakley had settled down in Denver, Colorado after her most recent speaking engagement there. She’d fallen in love with the area. She’d fallen in love with the atmosphere there as well. Her decision to move there came from health issues she had. The care she’d received was far better than while she’d lived in Florida. She’d chosen a more holistic, healthier way of healing. She’d begun using Cannabis as well. She’d begun speaking at various places after her health improved. She shared her health journey as well. Her life had gotten better in the short time since she’d moved to Denver. She’d made a DNR as well as an Advanced Directive in the event she passed unexpectedly. She’d rather be safe than sorry. She lived every day like she wasn’t going to wake up the next morning. She led by example. She’d spent most of her days in a Coffee Shop near her apartment working on her memoir. She knew it’d help everyone in some way.