The death of Shylowe Statzer has shocked a number of faculty and students who had the chance to know or meet her. Death is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a permanent cessation of all vital functions”. This can be simplified by saying that death is the stopping of all important parts: parts of life, of the body, of personality, of everything. Death is the end.

In this light, it is easy to understand why death is a hard thing for the living, who continue on, to handle. Why do we call the death of someone a loss? Because it is a loss. This world has witnessed that person and their vital functions, but once they stop, those vital functions are no more. The world is like a giant body and people are the cells. Cells die, but they also reproduce and the body continues. Statzer is a cell that has died in this body-world, but she continues on in the way she affected the other cells that will continue to live and grow and reproduce until they too die. The hope that all of us cells have is that we leave our impact in some way on this body and on this world.