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.
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.