Mortality

[lindyhop]

I drove my dad to his brother's funeral yesterday and got to see cousins and aunts and uncles I haven't seen in decades, not just years.

My dad is the oldest of three boys and at 88 he's the healthiest of all of them. His middle brother who passed away had suffered from Parkinson's for years but had still managed to stay pretty active up until the last six months. I hadn't seen my other uncle (the youngest brother) in many years and when this doddering old couple said hello to me it was shocking. And then this other oldish guy was hugging me and I realized it was my cousin who I hadn't seen since I used to babysit his kids when they were babies which was about 35 years ago.

Good lord how did we all get so old.

It was actually a lovely funeral with a lot of family and a many friends. The couple who drove my aunt and uncle to Yuma to get married were there. That was 67 years ago, just amazing. It was so obvious that my aunt and uncle cultivated a wonderful family (9 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, and a new great-great-grandchild) and made many devoted friends.

Which brings me to what I've been thinking about. I seem to have drawn the odd straw in the family. We keep to ourselves and don't have these networks in place. I hope that I can do better with my growing family and that I'll be eulogized as the fun and loving grandma and great-grandma when the time comes.