What Do You Have Mixed Feelings About Today?

[Clodfobble]

Mr. Clod has some pretty unsavory relatives on the extended branches of his family tree, most of whom I've never met. But I've met his aunt several times, so along with awful animated email forwards I occasionally get family updates on these people. The updates are so terrible, it's hard to keep from laughing. This stuff is my ticket to hell, right here.

So his aunt had a son, we'll call him Steve. Steve struggled with mental illness, but like many in his situation he avoided doctors and medications. A year ago, Steve died of cancer because he ignored the giant lump under his arm until it was way too late. Never met the guy, but I felt bad for everyone close to him, including his wife and adult kids (20-somethings.)

According to Mr. Clod's aunt, the wife--we'll call her Sarah--had always been Steve's rock, the one who kept him tethered to reality and functioning and all that. She was "the sane one in the house," and they counted on her to help when their son was "acting out." Sarah took her husband's death pretty hard, sunk (further?) into alcoholism, and a couple days ago we received an email letting us know that she had died, the implication being an overdose of some sort.

At this point I'm still feeling bad for all these people I don't know, who obviously had some problems in their lives. But then, the aunt starts to share some of "the crazy wonderful memories" she has of good ol' Sarah.

I remember helping her to put on a bustier, to look like a stripper to entertain Steve in the hospital in his last few days. He laughed and laughed.
...
Sarah put decorations up all over the house and all over her kayaks too. I especially remember a “vampire” Mickey Mouse attached to the bow of her kayak.
...
Sarah told some really outlandish stories of the wild and zoo animals that she had “in her backyard.” Once she told of trapping an owl in our closet in the house on ****** Drive. Later we discovered that the owl was cardboard.
...
Once or maybe more than once, she spread honey and birdseed on her arms, stayed very still, and waited for eagles to land.

This one was the sane one. The email then goes on to say that the one son has yet to deliver the news of their mother's death to the second son, because his brother is currently in prison for "changing a prescription amount." The apple doesn't fall far.