Monday Mood November 4, 2024

Today is a somber day, the funeral for J's middle brother.  Being the youngest child, you kind of suspect you might outlive your siblings, but it still comes as a shock.  Being the last one left. Wondering when your time will come.  

I have older siblings, none of whom is in the best of health.  It is impossible to predicts, but there is a good chance that I will outlive at least a couple of them.  My brothers are likely to leave complicated estates and no real plans for what they want to have happen.  For one we will need a dumpster on the driveway to start the clearing out process.  

And really a dumpster on the driveway is often the first indication that someone is gone.  When my parents bought the house in Florida, Norman lived across the street on the corner.  He was a retired Navy officer, with a wife from Germany.  They had been there just a couple of years, they had done the same thing my parents did, went to the space coast after the Apollo program shut down, looking for an affordable place to life.  Norman was a good neighbor, a great neighbor.  His wife developed dementia and was in a local nursing home.  One fall there was a hurricane coming up the coast, the nursing home evacuated, she died on the bus on the trip inland.  Norman was heartbroken.  A couple of years later a dumpster appeared on his driveway.  That was the first my parents knew he was dead.  He died of a heart attack while driving his car, went off the street and came to a stop against an electric pole. 

This will change us, and we will move forward. Reminded to enjoy each day. To have fun along the way. 

Tim did in his own way, enjoying watching his five kids, grandkids and even a great grandchild prosper. He drank a little more than others thought he should.  He was a regular at the gym.  And loved working in his garden.  For 40 years he traveled for work, millions of miles in the air, thousands of nights in hotels.  When he retired he stayed close to home.  Only family weddings took him more than a days drive from home.  A few years ago he bought a Camaro.  He was riding with us to visit his older brother in the hospital before he died this summer.  We got to talking cars and fun.  I mentioned that J had sat in a new Corvette at the Auto Show, but had to crawl out onto the floor to get out.  Tim said, he bought the Camaro instead of a Corvette, because he couldn't get in and out of a Corvette without help.  Always practical, always having a little fun along the way.