It's been a sad week. My cousin Johnny passed away on Saturday and I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that's happened in one short week. That's him on the right, sitting cross legged in the front row. Johnny and I were never close, we didn't hang out together. He was six years older than me and infinitely cooler. He was in the same grade as my brother Jim, another "bad boy" among a gang of "bad boys" and he would occasionally come by the house as we were growing up.
Keep in mind, twelve of the fourteen grand-kids, spawn of the Grace clan (four sisters and bachelor brother), lived within spitting distance of each other in the South Shores neighborhood of Decatur. The other two, the Jorgensen girls, lived 15 minutes away across the lake. So even when we didn't see each other on a daily basis, we knew we could always walk over to an aunt's or our grandmother's house if we needed something. The sisters fought pretty regularly, so it was often difficult keeping track of which one was talking to who but we always seemed to know that when the chips were down, the family would rally and come together.
And that's the way it's been this week. Cousins I rarely see or talk to call. Email and Facebook have become conduits of information and grief. Johnny is the first of our generation to pass and reality has dealt a sucker punch. He leaves behind two young boys and elderly parents, all overcome with grief.
As with any death, we're left to wonder why. Why did he have to die so suddenly, when he had so many people who loved him? What can we take away from all this?
I found this quote by a motivational speaker named Dennis Waitley “Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.”
Really, honestly, can we do anything else?
4 comments:
Nicely written post, Barb. I am so sorry about the family's loss.
Barb, What a touching post. I don't remember all of the not talking when we were younger. I always thought it was special to have so many aunts, an uncle and a grandma close to us. We grew up with cousins as friends and sleeping over at cousins houses. Thanks for trying to make sure I was in the loop. Mark kept me posted. I still believe the good times outnumbered the bad. We all turned out to be successful people. We have been lucky to have been healthy all these years. How sad it is to lose Johnny. We will all miss him.
Joanie
Beautiful post, Barb. I know these next couple of days are going to be extra hard, but I'm glad that you will have (most) of your siblings there with you. We'll be thinking about you all.
Beautifully written. We are back from Colorado after a great visit with Ron's family, reconnecting after so many years. How ironic to be losing a member of our own family during the same time. I appreciated everyone keeping me informed, although that feeling of being able to do absolutely nothing to help is not a good one. I will remember Johnny as a mischevious boy and a kind and funny man. It's wrong. It's sad. And we can't do a damn thing about it. Sandi
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