Feb 13: It's a sad, sad world

Life comes in cycles and unfortunately I'm currently in the death one.

There was a small celebration for my birthday and my former (as opposed to old!) partner Joanne came, with husband John.  Joanne and I haven't seen each other in ages, and John almost never comes out, so I know that means he really loves me.  It was the only time they had left the house for anything besides work since their son Jeremy, now 16, lost his best friend to suicide a couple weeks ago.   Jeremy is, of course, devastated and justifiably angry. 

My cousin Susan's husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over two years ago.  She asked me not to talk about it as Fabio is an intensely private person.  I alluded to it only once in a December 2010 post, which was the year anniversary of Martha's death.  She and Emily, now 16, saw him in Italy over Christmas and knew it wouldn't be long.  The call came February 3 that he had taken a turn for the worse, and despite dropping everything to get on the next flight to Italy they received the news that he had passed away before they took off from Dulles Airport, depriving Emily of saying goodbye to her father in person.  They are still in Italy, Susan coping with all those things that his death entails.

Two days later I found out that a friend's 'totally cured' breast cancer is back, and in multiple places. Honoring her wishes I will refer to her as DH, she doesn't wish the severity to be known. 

Then Monday my friend Eileen's husband committed suicide.  A police officer for 25 years, well known and highly thought of, he drove to a park in Philly and used his service revolver.  Making matters worse, the township supervisor chose to share with the media that he and his wife had a fight Sunday night, effectively throwing blame on her.  Last time I checked, married couples fight.  Were there problems? Yes.  But that doesn't  mean that an appropriate response is killing yourself.  Eileen is handling things as well as she can under the circumstances, choosing to ignore the gossip and concentrating on putting together a funeral service that will honor how Sean lived his life, not on his death. 

None of these deaths or illnesses will affect me personally, meaning on a day-to-day basis, but it's hard to watch so many people that I care about cope with these losses.  The circle of life is all around us, seasonally as well as in our lives, but sometimes it seems to get stuck.  It is what it is, and this too will pass.

Thanks for checking in,   Laurie