Funeral
 

My wife's cousin died this weekend from brain cancer. He was recovering from his second operation, which was peformed two weeks ago on the day that his father was buried.http://www.cellar.org/images/moresmilies/sniff.gif

He was a nice guy, but I didn't get a chance to know him very well. We saw him and his family last summer at a birthday party. We had already decided to get back in touch after that, but when we went to call noone was ever home.

It turned out that about this time he was readmitted to the hospital. We didn't find out about it until a few weeks before his father passed.

I'm glad I did have an opportunity to see him at the party. It just goes to show that life is a collection of missed opportunities.

One of his children is pre-teen. The other is about 3 years old. At the party I handed my Nikon 8700 to the younger daughter and she ran around shooting pictures. It was probably a crazy thing to do, but thinking back on it now and remembering how much fun she was having, I'm glad I did it.

I don't know how you tell children that young about something like this. Since it has been at least two months since he was home, I'm trying to guess how she remembers him, and if she saw him in the hospital. She didn't seem affected by her grandfather's death, but it can't be too long before she understands that her daddy is gone.

Another odd thing is that the cemetary where the funeral will take place is one where I recently got funeral plots. These belonged to a family member who didn't want them and were transferred to us. My wife has not seen them yet and while we are there I will probably show them to her.

Between kidney stones and funerals, these past two weeks have really sucked.

My condolences on your wife's family's recent losses.

Sorry Man.

My father died when I was exactly that age, and I really only remember him from pictures. There are one or two very hazy memories. I was not "affected" by his death except that I think I knew something was very wrong because my mom cried for so long.

My cousins' father was killed a few years ago in a motorcycle accident. He has 3 daughters of different ages (can't remember their ages now). The young ones don't really seem affected (0-4/5), even around 9 it didn't seem to have much of an effect; however, the oldest one, who was about 15 at the time, you could definitely tell.

My father-in-law died almost three years ago of brain cancer. What was absolutely astounding was how fast the whole thing happened. One day he was having trouble coming up with words, a few days later a nurse friend of the family suggested he see a neurologist, a few days after that he went in for surgery. Surgery actually makes things quite a lot worse for a while because of the swelling, but the theory is then they recover and bounce back. He never did. He didn't die however until a year later, from complications and unexplainable infections.

I'm really sorry for you and your wife, Rich, as well as his children.

Remember folks, hug your children often.
Sorry, Rich. :(