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edenfallingThings about my family, part 1:
I am heading down to New Jersey on Thursday evening in order to attend a long-planned dinner party my parents are hosting for our family friends Mr. and Mrs. M and Mr. and Mrs. G. Because said friends are the parents of my friends (Cat and Susan, respectively), Susan and I are naturally also invited.
It's kind of weird to realize that somewhere in the past ten years, I wound up on social terms with my friends's parents -- distantly social, obviously, since I live four hours away from them -- but even so. I send them Christmas cards in their own right; they do the same for me.
Anyway, my mom is in a mild panic over the menu, but I am sure this will resolve itself by Thursday at the latest. Mrs. M is a highly skilled gourmet French cook, so I think my mom feels a bit intimidated. I am not sure WHY, since Mrs. M has also done things like explode a salmon in a microwave (a true story, which she gets a great kick out of telling!), and while my mom will never be accused of haute cuisine, she's a pretty good cook in her own right. But nerves are not born of logic. *wry*
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Things about my family, part 2:
This morning my Great-Uncle Dick died in his sleep.
This was not really a surprise. He'd been in increasingly bad health for several years now, and was officially in hospice care despite still living at home. He also has not had much will to live since Auntie Duke, his wife, died about ten years ago. (Her given name was Lolita; Duke was a childhood nickname, rather like 'Fritz' was my Grandma Doris's nickname. My great-grandfather evidently had odd ideas about what to call girls.)
There will eventually be a simple graveside funeral service, in obedience to his wishes, but we don't yet know any details. I will almost certainly not be able to attend in any case, since getting down to Roanoke is a such a serious logistical problem for me that I hadn't seen Uncle Dick in seven years or so, though we'd spoken on the phone now and then.
...
So yeah. We were never very close, and there were subjects (partisan politics, gun control, religion, etc.) that I had to do a verbal tiptoe dance around when we spoke, but he was a warm, friendly man who was quietly lonely and depressed in his last years. If there is some form of existence after death, I am sure he's reunited with Auntie Duke, which is all that I think he really wanted. And if there isn't, his unhappiness is still no longer a burden on him, which is all I suppose one can really ask for.
I am heading down to New Jersey on Thursday evening in order to attend a long-planned dinner party my parents are hosting for our family friends Mr. and Mrs. M and Mr. and Mrs. G. Because said friends are the parents of my friends (Cat and Susan, respectively), Susan and I are naturally also invited.
It's kind of weird to realize that somewhere in the past ten years, I wound up on social terms with my friends's parents -- distantly social, obviously, since I live four hours away from them -- but even so. I send them Christmas cards in their own right; they do the same for me.
Anyway, my mom is in a mild panic over the menu, but I am sure this will resolve itself by Thursday at the latest. Mrs. M is a highly skilled gourmet French cook, so I think my mom feels a bit intimidated. I am not sure WHY, since Mrs. M has also done things like explode a salmon in a microwave (a true story, which she gets a great kick out of telling!), and while my mom will never be accused of haute cuisine, she's a pretty good cook in her own right. But nerves are not born of logic. *wry*
---------------
Things about my family, part 2:
This morning my Great-Uncle Dick died in his sleep.
This was not really a surprise. He'd been in increasingly bad health for several years now, and was officially in hospice care despite still living at home. He also has not had much will to live since Auntie Duke, his wife, died about ten years ago. (Her given name was Lolita; Duke was a childhood nickname, rather like 'Fritz' was my Grandma Doris's nickname. My great-grandfather evidently had odd ideas about what to call girls.)
There will eventually be a simple graveside funeral service, in obedience to his wishes, but we don't yet know any details. I will almost certainly not be able to attend in any case, since getting down to Roanoke is a such a serious logistical problem for me that I hadn't seen Uncle Dick in seven years or so, though we'd spoken on the phone now and then.
...
So yeah. We were never very close, and there were subjects (partisan politics, gun control, religion, etc.) that I had to do a verbal tiptoe dance around when we spoke, but he was a warm, friendly man who was quietly lonely and depressed in his last years. If there is some form of existence after death, I am sure he's reunited with Auntie Duke, which is all that I think he really wanted. And if there isn't, his unhappiness is still no longer a burden on him, which is all I suppose one can really ask for.
