bad news.....

ok, so we have had several bad reports out of upper new york state, where my spouse's oldest sister is battling numerous cancers.......she will have surgery on 6/20....a week after returning from the family wedding in cincinnati on 6/11.........this all smacks of deja vu........i recall clearly a family gathering when i was a newlywed.......a gathering scheduled because my dad's next oldest brother had liver cancer and they family wanted to get together just one more time before the inevitable.......and gosh darn if he was not the next one to pass on......the oldest brother dropped dead from a major heart attack........nobody seemed to know that he had nitro pills or if they knew about the pills...just what they were for.........and the brother in question actually outlived my grandmother as well..........which just goes to show that we do not know when and where....just the certainty of the passing on........a side note....it was at this family gathering that my oft addled grandmother complained to to me and my spouse that nobody had yet named a child after her mother.....cordelia blanche.............luckily our children were male....and the issue never came up again..........and so we will all gather next weekend in cincinnati, bringing our own wine........i will not go into details.....but sometimes is just makes sense to byob........and there will be looming over head the reality that the one expected to be next may not be next at all..........and that the getting together was a good thing....in retrospect...........