I've Done Stuff! The Deaths

Oof, I got hit with a double whammy just before Thanksgiving. I got home from driving the taxi early Monday morning to discover that something was eating all the available hard drive space on my...um...hard drive. I was up until 4AM trying to fix it but no luck. So off to bed.

8:30AM the phone rings. It's California. My grandfather's wife passed away a few hours earlier. This would be my Grammy Faye. Not technically my grandmother, but my grandfather was married to her for 24 years, so de facto, she was. This throws everyone for a loop. My grandfather has been essentially wheelchair bound with 24 hour care for the past few years. Grammy Faye saw to every aspect of the household, including his care. Everybody thought he would go before her. Unfortunately, she developed congestive heart failure over the summer, and while she had been doing ok, it appears that that shortly after November started, everything went downhill fast. Still though, she had 93 great years on the planet, and I am very happy I've had the time to get to know her. My twice yearly visits to Pasadena to spend time with her and my grandfather were always highlights.

While phone calls were being traded between the coasts, I was talking to a computer expert who finally got my computer up and running. Just an incompatible program with Windows 7 that had to be uninstalled and reinstalled. Once the computer was up, I checked email to discover that the wife of my father's best friend (who I've known all my life), passed away early Sunday morning. This was more expected, as we had received word that she had been given only weeks to live. Again, you couldn't ask to know a nicer person.

So after word of 2 deaths in 5 hours, I'm sort of glad no other bad news has come down the pipeline. I'll be heading to California from the 16th-21st of this month for Grammy Faye's memorial service and to spend some time with my grandfather. I've put a moratorium on further deaths until after the holidays.