xans

Today was the funeral for Alan's mother-in-law. She passed away 27/12/10. She had been in the hospital for the last couple months, but had been ill for sometime before that, although no one quite realised it. Back in August her boyfriend Cyril had passed away, and many had thought it was grief/missing him that had brought a change in her, not an illness. But she was 83, so it wasn't entirely unexpected.

She was a lovely old lady, very energetic and quite self-less. She was Al's mum's best friend, Mary is feeling quite lost at the moment. She has never really struck up any friendships with any of the other people at her rest home, and given the turnover rate of rest homes it can be quite hard to strike up a friendship that you have no idea how long will last. She will be coming to stay with us for a week next week, I plan to introduce her to Terry Goodkind so she can figure out just how utterly terrible that show Legend of the Seeker is compared to the source material.

The funeral is the first time I've seen Alan cry. He didn't expect to, I think he thought he had prepared himself for this eventuality but the funeral just kind of hit him hard. His son Jon was one of the pall-bearers and spoke up at the funeral, telling a couple stories about his nana. It really hit home with everyone because many of them had stories of getting chased down by this little old lady at some point. She was little but she was fast and determined.

They had Dianna's ashes sitting on her casket, so even though she passed 10 years ago, she was at her mother's funeral too. When it came time to carry Gladys out, Jon handed Dianna's ashes to Joe and they carried her out... but then they sent Dianna's ashes with her to the crematoriam. The idea was that they would mix some of Gladys's ashes with Diana's, and Diana's ashes with Gladys's, so Jon and Joe could have a piece of the grandmother along with their mother, and their aunts and uncles could have a piece of their sister along with their mother.

The other sweet little miracle though, was that Gladys's newest great-granddaughter was due to be born on the 5th of January. Her son-in-law Jeff got a call about an hour or after she passed that his granddaughter Lilith had been born. One life ended and shortly after another began. Coincidence? I think not.

Fin.

Today I chatted on MSN with an old friend, a friend who walked away from what we had, because it was too painful to bear, too close a reminder of what he once had, and lost. I was saddened because, despite how much he monumentally screwed up, she's okay (I'd go so far to say, she's better than okay), and her and my friendship still stands, and his and mine could have (should have, would have) carried on, so long as she was not a constant topic of conversation. (If that had been the case, I would have dropped him like third period French.)

But he made the decision, and it was he who subsequently reconnected with me on a handful of occasions since then, until, finally, now, we have spoken once again. And it's nice. He's one of my best (and damn near only) male friends. And sure, sometimes his morbid self-loathing and self-flagellation can get on my nerves. But I can and will tell him to STFU if it's getting to be too much. And we have such delightful conversations about all manner of things from various sci-fi/fantasy movies, tv shows, and books, to RPGs (he has been and always will be my DM), to history and war tactics... it's great. I've missed it, and so, he's come to realise, has he.

He's my friend, and we've had some rough patches before. But he's got nothing on the drama-llama-dactyl that pandoras_evil_t and I have been through over the years. Oh, the stories she could tell. :D

I'm glad to have my friend back, for however long it may be this time.

Fin.

pandoras_evil_t's brother attempted to off himself yesterday by overdosing on painkillers. It's an awful shock, and I'm glad he didn't succeed. I mean, while he can be a severe pain in the ass and a right bother for Ange and her mum, he's a teenage boy. They're supposed to be awfully frustrating. I remember how much I used to despise Iain. Now he's a decent human being, and we get along great.

I also gave myself a godawful headache yesterday, getting far too passionately involved with fictional characters. And the horrible shit happening to them. *weeps* The only possible explanation that I subject myself to such emotional torment over a fantasy series is that clearly I am a masochist.

Fin.

Today was supposed to be my last day at work. Why am I not there? On Tuesday my mother's cousin Barry died. The funeral is at 11 this morning, so I'm going to that and dad is doing the work at the tree place. I already look like I'm about to cry--I'm getting attacked by pollen again... or suddenly I've become allergic to make-up as well, which will piss me off if that is so.
I got the email from mum yesterday telling me that, and also that my cat, Sam, disappeared on Tuesday and she fears he may have been got by the coyotes. She feared that once before, around the same time The Princess disappeared, only he came back. Let's see just how many lives my cat has. Poor Marbles is all alone now.

Fin.