Death

When my grandmother died, my parents had already asked me to come visit her because she had been hospitalized. I had arranged for the time off from work. My parents called the night before I was going to go home, and told me not to come, that she was already gone. At that point the funeral was not expected to be right away. On the day when I was not expected at work, I drove to work at the normal time, had difficulty finding a parking spot, and decided to head home anyway. It turned out that this was fortuitous, but it was really just me not wanting to put up with the routine frustrations that day.

The loss of my grandmother did not hit me until the holidays. Fortunately, my sister seemed to understand, and we talked it out a good bit.

What brings this topic up now? At work, where things are not going well in general, my supervisor got the news today that his grandmother had died. It was expected. But the above story came to mind when thinking about giving him my condolences.

One of Jennifer's uncles died recently. Another was hospitalized more recently and has taken a turn for the worse. I don't think these are unexpected events, either. Both have been in ill health for years. She gives the one in the hospital grief at least annually, and I hope she will do so again.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sit here and wish I were the type to write to people more often.