On Dying Young and What Doctors are Meant For?

Today I found out that one of niece's friends, a twelve year old girl, died from leukaemia. My niece told us when she got home from school today. I was actually at home cause I'm on a week's vacation to see about some other affairs. My mum couldn't believe it and I who myself never even met the girl but heard of her and knew when my niece used to be on the phone with her and when she entered her life also felt sad...It made me look up leukaemia on the web and I learnt that in the UK in the 50s to the 60s about there most kids used to die from leukaemia a few wks after it was diagnosed. However in the present day only 20% of the kids die thanks to advances in medicine.
Apparently this child died on Friday but my niece only found out today, Monday when she went out to school. My niece wasn't very close to her and she was a new friend. Cause my niece has only now started high school and she did not go to the same elementary school as this child. However my niece was introduced to this girl by her mother who met the girl at a pre-school she sometimes teaches at and cause she found out her daughter and the girl were going to attend the same high school in the new school year she felt it might be a good new friend. In Trinidad children write an entrance exam to get into high school and get into to different ones based on their marks and choices. Both my niece and this girl had chosen the same school as their first choice and had gotten into the school. So over the months leading up to starting at their new school the girls used to exchange texts messages and phone calls. My niece was invited to a party the girl had just before school started I think it may have been for her birthday but my niece did not end up attending.
In September both my niece and the girl started their new school but were not in the same class cause usually they have three classes entering and they are arranged either randomly or by alphabetical order. So my niece and her were in the same year but not the actual class. However I now learn from my niece that the girl has been out of school since early October or late September. My niece last spoke to her on the phone mid October. When I researched leukaemia it made me wonder...that's exactly the same time it took for kids to die back in the 50s and 60s in the UK. Was it that this child was in the unfortunate 20% or was it that in Trinidad health care was back in time compared to in the UK? I am comparing with the UK case studies as they happen to come up in my search....with a documentary done on the kids on BBC. In running a spell check on this blog I realise I may have gotten the UK info cause I spell like the Brits and the Americans and Brits spell the disease differently-leukemia versus leukaemia. I guess I won’t know why this particular child died and it is not worth finding out as it will not prove anything and only bring more grief to the family. However it does make me wonder about the health care set up for this in Trinidad as a whole…
But it also made me wonder about many more things…can any amount of health care or doctors decide when we are going to die? Are doctors merely just gatekeepers who can help us enter this world and leave? What are their roles really? Perhaps they are just meant to care for the bodies when they enter this world and when they leave making the transition as peaceful and painless as possible? And of course I guess make our time on the earth as healthy as possible too. But for sure they can’t really stop death can they? Nor can they cause death? But I don’t know…and really doesn’t it seem too when you think of it from the spiritual side it makes sense that we only enter and leave this earth when it is exactly the right time? So what is this thing call dying…is the soul really in control as to when it can enter and leave this earthly plane? I really don’t know…but for sure some people forget and think doctors and medicine can do more that they possibly can…
My niece has been known to exaggerate and dramatise stories but I don’t know cause she does seem to be troubled by this on a subtle or subconscious level at least. So I take it she is being honest about this…she says to me that her friend had asked her that if she died that she should come to her funeral…very sad sounding conversation for 12 year olds…but cause I believe this is true I am driving my niece and her mother to the funeral tomorrow. I’m not attending myself as she will go with her mother…I’m just the transport. The school is officially taking students but the priority was for students in her class itself and there is no more space on the bus. My niece has experienced death in the form of relatives before of which I think she took the death of my grandfather, her great-grandfather the worst…but just makes me wonder…death…dying…dying young…makes you sometimes wonder what’s all this about?…and the sadness of the parents who have to grieve such a death…