This year alone, I attended five funerals. All of them were for family members:  an uncle, age 62; an aunt, age 57; a brother-in-law, age 54; and two cousins-in-law, ages 54 and 45. Their deaths resulted from heart attacks, stroke, drowning, and one, allegedly, natural causes in the bathroom of a greyhound bus. The reactions I noticed expressed consistently by the bereaved, other than surprise, is regret. When loved ones pass away, people wish they had the opportunity to have said and done more. Hence, I was inspired to compose the following poem, “By Surprise”: