Death Is a Cruel Mistress

Our family has experienced a lot of loss in the past few months. In June, my grandfather, Grandpa Claude passed away. He was the patriarch of the family and one of the greatest people you could ever meet. He was funny and kind, and I never visited him or called enough. It was a hard loss.

A couple weeks later, my dad passed away. It was a total shock. He'd never lived the healthiest lifestyle, or made the best decisions, but I never thought I'd lose him so early. I'm the morbid type, and I've always wondered how I'd react if I lost a parent. Would I cry? Would I wallow in self-pity? Well, now I know. I sat in total shock, on the phone, while my stepmom told me the news, and as soon as I hung up, I sobbed like a baby. Once I was finished, I called my sister to see how she was handling it, and then I texted my other sister. I probably should have called her too, but I wasn't in the mood to talk more than I had to. My job offers three days of paid bereavement, which I took, not because I couldn't function, but because I wasn't in the mood to go. I used those three days to spend extra time with my daughter.

Dad's loss was worst on my middle sister, Tricia. She and her family had literally been on the road to visit him when we found out, so she was stuck with the job of getting his affairs in order, since he lived in Texas, and we live up here. Luckily, my uncles were there to help her, and she put together a great celebration of life for him that both myself and my youngest sister were able to fly down for. The celebration had a great turnout, and I saw all of my family, and sooo many of my dad's friends, most I hadn't seen since I was a kid. She had it catered by his favorite catfish restaurant, and we ate, and drank and swapped stories for hours. It was exactly what he would have wanted.

Last week, my stepdad's father, Bill, passed away. I wasn't close to Bill, but I know that John and his family are devastated. The visitation for him was yesterday, and it was a pretty sad affair (obviously). I have to tell ya, I definitely prefer the celebration of life to funerals and visitations. I've already informed my family that it's what I want - Cremation and Celebration. I'll go ahead and print up the fliers now. Oh, and my family doesn't recognize June anymore. We're going straight from May to July, according to my Uncle Mike. That's unfortunate for Tricia, since both her birthday and wedding anniversary are in the-month-which-shall-not-be-named.