Death of a Heroic Man

I read a touching, heartbreaking story in the New York Post yesterday. An eighty five year old man and his forty six year old mentally handicapped son, were both found dead in the apartment. The elderly man died of natural causes and they are saying his dependent son died of "neglect." I think it's quite clear that the son died of a broken heart, unable to comprehend why his best friend, his lifeline to the world, was not there to take care of him first thing in the morning. He may have vainly tried to wake him, to bring him back for hours and unable to do so, might have cried and carried on for hours. I think he was unable to process the loss mentally, but emotionally he did, he knew he had lost everything and his heart gave out. Grief killed him, not neglect. One can live without food and water for a long time, but a broken heart has been known to kill very effectively time and time again. In a perfect world, it should have happened the other way around, the old man who was a great father and a wonderful person, should have said goodbye first, but we don't live in a perfect world and at the end his son wasn't spared. Yet as sad as this story is, it's also what the heroic father would have wanted, for his son to follow him right away so he would never have to be just another faceless number in an institution. He loved his son with all his heart and his son loved him. He would have died a slow death in an institution, instead he is now with his father, together for eternity, so sometimes the fates are actually kind. May God bless them both.