Birth and Death, and all that LIFE stuff in between...

[IrishEyes]

I just need a thread to ramble, and I hope that a few of you might join me.

As you may have read, my Great grandmother just passed away.

And right now, my precious dog is about to have puppies.

And we're moving into a new home this week.

So while I have just learned of a death, I'm also preparing for a birth, and trying to ...well...live life...as well. Does that make sense?

So the three things are on my mind right now, even though I should really be in bed sleeping.

Learning of GGs death brought tears, of course. She was almost 96, just days away, in fact. Nemo, in his usual fashion, was trying to brighten the kids by explaining how much she'd seen in her years here on earth. He explained that she actually knew people that fought in the Civil War. She met Pretty Boy Floyd, he ate breakfast at her momma's table once. She not only remembers life before DirecTV, but also before television. And radio. And cars. And indoor plumbing.

You know what I remember most? She always made me a coconut cream pie when I came home to visit. When I walked in the door to her house, I could walk straight to the fridge, and she'd wack me with a dishrag for checking on the pie before I hugged her neck.

She was one of the momma's that made you pick your own switch off the tree for a whoopin', and Heaven forbid if you picked a little one. She cooked enough to feed an army for every meal, she was always the last one to eat, and there were rarely any leftovers - her food was just too good not to eat. She could make gravy out of bacon drippings, flour and milk, and it tasted better than anything from a Cracker Barrel any day of the week. Biscuits she did from scratch, and I never saw her use a cookbook. She knew all of her kids names, and their kids, and their kids kids, and even my kids. Of her 9 boys that made it to age 18, every single one of them joined the military for at least 4 years. If you added up all of the years of service from her offspring, including kids, grandkids, and great grandkids (including me!), we gave over 200 years of our lives to this country, and one of us (my namesake) actually gave his life.

 

I could go on for a long time about her, but I won't bore you with all of the trips down memory lane. I just needed a place to ramble, and I wanted to ask a question. Today, I felt like the world should have stopped, if even for just a second, to acknowledge her passing. I felt the same way when my mother passed away almost 4 years ago. I just wanted to yell "STOP!" at the top of my lungs, and feel like everyone understood, even if they didn't know her. Has anyone's death ever affected YOU that way?

If so, please feel free to share your stories.

 

thanks for being here to listen. you guys have no idea how much i adore you all!!

[Drip Curl Magic]

I remember when my grandfather died. I was 9 years old. This was the first family member I'd ever lost in my short little life span. Up until then, I'd never really thought much about death. It didn't seem relevant up until that point in time. It was hard for me to accept that fact that he was actually gone.

 

I didn't want to lose my grandpa. He was such a good man. And it didn't seem right... that such a great guy should die so early. He was only in his 50's.

 

It felt weird knowing that from every thanksgiving from then on out... we'd have to have someone else shred our turkey.

 

It didn't seem right that my mother had to cry herself to sleep every night... but still have to wake up in the morning and go to work.

 

Nothing felt right at the time... I started thinking so much about death. I started to question religion. And once I lost that faith in religion... I got so lost for a while. It was hard for me to accept. I thought a lot about grandpa... and how weird it was that such an amazing human being could just not exist anymore.

 

When I went to his funeral... it didn't seem like enough. He's done so much for all of us... and all we could do for him now... was say a couple of nice words and put him in a fancy box to be burried in the ground.

 

It took me a while to get over it... but eventually I moved on and accepted his death. Since then, there have been a couple more deaths in my family... and each one is just as hard to deal with. It was especially hard to be at my uncle's bed side as he bled to death. But I always feel better eventually.

 

Death is hard to deal with. I'm sure that all humans universaly agree that death sucks. I hope you feel better soon. It sounds like things are really chaotic for you and your family right now. Just try to think of the wonderful life that your great grandmother lived. Most people don't get to have such a long and full life.:naughty:

[Queso]

i had a best friend who died of cancer in third grade. i never even really thought about death until one day he was dead and we couldn't have good times anymore.

he loved lemons, we planted a lemon tree

and then moved away

i visited his grave the other day and it was hella weird.

i dont want a grave

give me a cloud

[Loricybin]

death is weird.

birth is weird.

life is weird.

 

i've been experiencing a lot of them all lately.

 

i had my cat eat one of the kittens in her litter, either out of containment of infection, or a hungry mom. Either way, a half of newborn kitten isn't a great sight on your bed =(

and my grandma recently died of cancer throughout her body.

a law passed said that my family didnt have access to her medical records, because she was not diagnosed officialy senile yet. this lack of knowledge led us to not know about her cancer until she was already beyond surgery.

 

and i've had multiple liters (litters, too) of kittens born in my house, and my nephew was just born.

 

i'm an uncle, and my brother's a daddy.

YIKES!