My uncle Keith passed away this morning. My uncle Keith is my dad's youngest brother and is the 4th child out of 5. He and my dad work at the same company and have since they were both very young men. They are on different teams but were both working the graveyard shift last night and were getting ready to head home this morning at 7:30 when my uncle collapsed. My dad was there while he watched people do CPR on him for 25 minutes before the ambulance arrived. He saw him get loaded into the ambulance and was there at the hospital when they pronounced him dead. His heart stopped.
My dad called me this morning about 10:30 to offer the news. I have rarely seen my dad cry. I saw him cry once when I was very young when he got the news his dad's mother passed, once when he was telling us he and my mom were separating, once when he told us his father passed, and this morning. The loss of my uncle is hard but seeing my father cry is worse. He doesn't often reveal his feelings so to see them come flowing out... it hurts.
My dad's family does not do funerals. I guess I come by that part honestly. I don't do them either. Every person who has passed in my dad's family gets the same sort of send off.
(1) Family grieves privately... meaning you cry off by yourself. You are allowed your feelings but it is best not to upset others so take care of it on your own.
(2) Body is cremated.
(3) Forego the memorial service and take the ashes to a spot where that person would have preferred to be... ie. mountains, beach, etc... This can be done with family or one member can handle the responsibility alone.
I am sorry for your family's loss. For your ache. I mirror some of the same thoughts within myself (very different from most of my family). Love to you today and love to you tomorrow.
Thank you for your support. As Diana says, "We all have stuff," and I know we have all experienced loss. We have that in common. Thanks for reaching out for me as I have reached out for you. :)
While in Gainesville back in early December, I purchased a number of new Gator t-shirts for Jason and a couple of things for me. As soon as I arrived home I began wishing I had picked up x, y, and z. I called my good friend who is still in grad school and begged her to send me those things so I would be ready for that little game on Jan 8th. She not only sent me those things but she sent me a "Beat Oklahoma" button. How exciting!! I immediately put it on my jacket so everywhere I go, people can read a message they just don't understand.
It just doesn't have the same effect out here that it does in Florida. Bummer.
I just got a new toy!! I ordered a Macbook Pro for my new office computer. I have never been a "Mac" person but I decided to give this a try since there are some things I want to try and the Mac seems to be ready to handle them. I have to say, I do like the sleek design, the cool way the keys don't make a noisy clicking when I type, and the many different software options that come standard. I am, however, experiencing a bit of a challenge with trying to perform some of the most basic of tasks. For example, it took me forever to figure out how to copy and paste, how to remove my thumb drive, and even how to remove a cd/dvd from the drive. Thank goodness the guy in the office next door is a Mac Master. I can't wait to be ambidextrous with my computer technology too!
Macs have always been a better choice for graphics and audio uses. But the options for software and specialty stuff is much more limited than in the PC world. The advantage that the PC world has is based on the open architecture for the operating systems. To write anything for the Mac, you have to basically have the permission of Apple and it has to conform to very rigorous standards. For the PC, anyone that can click and drag a mouse can develop programs and utilities through development software out there. So, it is kinda like apples and oranges; it is in the user's hand for what they want.
Maybe I need to do that. But, then I would have to get the tree down out of the attic, decorate it,.... :( The date was the 12/14, just this past Sunday. Bruce is teaching a wonderful,wonderful class, but I don't know that it's being recoreded!
It's a world of laughter,
A world of tears.
It's a world of hopes,
And a world of fears.
There's so much that we share,
That it's time we're aware,
It's a small world after all.
Yep! We are off to Disneyland...... AGAIN!
When I was a little girl, my Bible class teacher encouraged us to pray for the men we wanted to marry. I used to pray he would be tall, have dark hair, have dark eyebrows, and be a christian... a member of the coC. I probably should have added that he have a normal attachment to theme parks. I am really jealous of all the women whose husbands like to take different trips. A cruise one year, river rafting the next, skiing in Utah, and perhaps even a trip to see the Mouse once every few years.
If you have such a husband, celebrate his normalcy and thank him for not dragging you off every couple of months to hang with Goofy and a few princesses. You are very blessed.
LOL....I enjoyed this post!!! "Some day your prince will come.....oh yeah, he did." I believe there is a reason that his love is Disney...YOU wished upon a star!! LOL...Cheeze! Enjoy!
