Before the age of 23, I had lost 3 of my siblings. My one older sister died at the age of 11 with brain cancer, and I remember each of us standing by her bedside, promising her that we'd make it through Armageddon, so that we could see her in the resurrection. My younger brother died when he was only a few days old and my other younger brother was killed by a drunk driver when he was 18. (you don't believe in curses eh?) That one hit me the hardest. It goes against nature when they're younger than you and when they die so young. And you know what happened at the funeral? Well my other brother (never baptized) had been DA'd a few years previous. Many people from the Hall offered their condolences to him. The night we buried our brother, we got a call from the PO (Prick Overseer). The call wasn't to see how we were doing......oh no! He had a much better reason to be calling. He informed us that Peter (my brother) should not have been talking to anyone at the funeral, because he was Disassociated.
We were completely stunned and shocked that ANYONE could possibly be that low, but there was the proof. I will never forget the hurt look on Peter's face that night. I was absolutely furious and I phoned our PO back and told him in no uncertain terms was a low life sack of shit he was and I purposely went to the meeting the next day, dragged him in the back room and tore another strip off him. Asshole.
It was around that time that I started thinking about life after death. It sounds bizarre, but after my brother died, for several weeks afterwards, it felt like he was right there in the room with me. Frankly I find the idea of a life after death far more comforting that the Witness idea that they're just dead in the ground.
Death doesn't frighten me as much any more, because I truly do believe that one day, we will all be reunited with our loved ones again.