Well, at least the family tradition is still alive

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m not that good, nor experienced, in writing “eulogy” posts, so please bear with me.

At about 11:45 this morning (Sunday) my dad called me to let me know that my grandmother had passed away at around 3:30 AM. I’m not real torn up about it now, but from personal experience, I know it won’t set in until the funeral (which is set for Wednesday.) Oh, and no offense to my grandma, but she really doesn’t have the best timing, seeing as I had to go work a double-shit at work today from noon till 10:30. I might have been able to leave early, like 4 PM, had someone else not already called out sick. At least I don’t have to work Wednesday, nor do I have class (ironically enough, it was canceled last week because the prof. is out of town.)

The whole family is shook up by this, naturally. And it should be noted that my family is quite large. My grandmother had nine children, and I have 19 cousins, several of them married and with anywhere from one to four kids. My grandmother was lucky enough to be a great-grandmother several times over, and we all know how much she loved all of her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. Even towards the end, when her mental health was slipping, whenever she held one of the newest members of the family in her arms, she would get a smile on her face.

As far as the “tradition” goes, people in my family have an odd habit of dying on other people in the family’s birthday. My grandfather (Pop, as we called him (the grandmother in question’s husband)) died on one of my aunt’s (by marriage) husband. About a year later, her husband (blood uncle and son of my grandmother,) died on my grandmother’s birthday. And now my grandmother died on the birthday of her nephew (my dad’s cousin), my cousin’s husband, and a different cousin of mine. It’s certainly not the best tradition, but hey, you go with what you got.

Oh, and to top off the day, I banged the top of my head on the bottom of the freezer door at around 1:00 AM, and it’s still bleeding a bit (damn head wounds,) and the monitor on my PC is dying (it keeps flashing off every now and then.) Bad things always happen in threes, huh?

2

Well, with a family that size, that tradition is easy to uphold.

Abuelito died on his daughter’s birthday, the first year that she was married. One of my great-aunts died on her godson’s birthday. The rest of my relatives have managed to be pretty good about avoiding that kind of birthday gift, although it’s quite a large family on both sides so if we search enough we’ll probably find more cases.

Condolences on your grandma’s death; are you and your relatives close, or is it one of those families that see each other at baptisms, weddings and funerals?

3

I’m sorry to hear your sad news, and sorry for your loss. Sounds like she was a great lady who will be missed by all of you.

Hope your head gets better though!

4

Sorry about your loss (and your head), Bouv.

5

Oh, we’re close all right. With the exception of my sister, and a couple cousins (one of whom is married and in the Navy,) we all live in the same state. If you then exclude me, they all live within 15 minutes of each other. Eliminate the few cousins of mine who moved “out of town”, and they all live within two minutes of each other. We’re talking upwards of fifty people here, once we include spouse’s, children, etc…

It’s rare for everyone to all get together for something other than a holiday or funeral, but pretty much almost every day some relative of mine is visiting another one for some reason or another, and pretty much every weekend a group of them will be doing something or going somewhere.

6

bouv, I’m very sorry for your loss.