As I previously posted, my Uncle Jim passed away on the same day my sister got married.
Uncle Jim had been sick for a while, although I did not know about it. That happens a lot in our family, mainly because it’s so huge! He was married to my mom’s sister Helen and had two or three children. It’s rather surreal for another death to occur, and I think that is because they aren’t rapidly dying off. I know, that sounds morbid, but let me give you a brief history. My mom was one of ten kids and my dad was one of eight. Out of the 18, 4 have passed, two on each side. However, multiple spouses have been lost, making many of my aunts/uncles widows.
I was informed that Uncle Jim was on life support a few days before he died. It kind of hit me how for granted I take my family. I really should visit them more often because you never know when someone’s called home.
The death got me thinking about a family reunion a few years back. My mom was asked to bless the meal and she start crying during her prayer! When we asked her what was wrong, she said that she had realized it was probably the last meal they would all be together and alive. However, we must not forget to mention that my mom had a sister named Shirley who died about fifteen years ago from cancer, so they were not all together and alive, just the majority. The following year my mom’s sister May passed away and so began the reality that my family would start getting old and dying.
I sometimes forget that detail of my life. You see, my parents are actually in their 60s. They had me in their late 30s/early 40s and my mom is the youngest in her family, so the fact that only two of ten kids has died, that’s amazing! My dad has lost two siblings, both were sisters. I actually never met my Aunt Evelyn, but I do remember when Aunt Dottie died. I remember being overwhelmed with grief and not understanding why I was so upset.
I realized after Dottie died that you never truly realize how close you are to someone until they pass away or get sick.
So this weekend when Uncle Jim was first put on life support, I felt weird. I’m not very good at handling grief, even though I’ve been to many funerals. I actually have skipped out on a few funerals just because I know I will cry. It’s the emotional part of me that comes out, even if I’m not truly emotional connected to the grief. I will not be attending Uncle Jim’s funeral, but that is due to the fact that I’m currently in a class/work. I think that the part of me that wants to grieve is actually crying out for my Aunt Helen. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a spouse, but I know it must be hard, especially if you’ve been together as long as they had!
This brings me to the second part of this post, my big sister got married. My brother and sister are 17 and 19 years older than me. I was 3 the first time my sister got married. She was married for about ten years and had a baby when she got divorced. I had never experienced a divorce in my family up until then and realized how hard it is on everyone. She has dated a lot over the past ten years and has had a few good men, and a lot of jerks. Mostly jerks that looked like good men. When she moved back to McEwen a few years ago, she got a job at a local law firm as a secretary. My mom actually tells the story about how she got the job, but instead referred Mike to Tracey saying, “You’re going to love my daughter.” She just had no idea he really would! Tracey has worked for Mike a few years and after a year of dating, he proposed. They got married June 6, 2009 in New Orleans.
It’s such a joy to see my sister finally with a man who loves her and will treat her right. It’s also nice to finally have a lawyer in her family. 
