Death, they say, is as much a part of life as birth. I understand this, yet in their case, there really should have been more distance between the two.

The young couple entered my office. After introductions they explained why they had come. Recently she had given birth to twins. "They were fighters," she sobbed. "They tried their best to live. They were born extremely premature, and though the medical staff exhausted all possibilities, their tiny bodies were not developed enough to survive." They lived only one day.

"Would you lead the interment service at the graveside?"

A blur of pain

In our county in Nova Scotia, burials do not take place during the winter months. A funeral service is held two or three days following a death, but the actual burial does not take place until spring.

The twins died during the winter and now it was spring. The young couple had been forced to wait months to commit the two tiny bodies to their final resting place. ...