Anyway, some time ago I lost a particular maternal cousin, who was like a second sister to me when we were young, and I got info that her widower had died. After a call to Mom's nursing home, I attempted to pass info on and found that my uncle's cell phone was no longer in service; my aunt answered their landline whereupon I was informed that my uncle had also passed on July 28 (my aunt never checked his cell phone contacts, only posting of his death on his facebook page!).
As regards my Mom, a portion of her memorial, September 22, 2017:
"1922... for most of us, that's more than a faded memory -- 95 years ago is a long gone past; yet, that amount of time is creeping up on all of us and many of us may never personally see it. [Her] life began in what was called the roaring twenties -- but the roaring twenties crashed into the Great Depression. Being the eldest of five, she looked after things while her mother was at work, although her sisters, the next eldest, pitched in. When she got news in 1990 that... her next youngest sister died, [she] cried for quite some time. After debilitating strokes, [she] was in the nursing home some while before the fourth oldest passed in 2011 and then the third oldest in 2015. The last of her siblings, 14½ years her junior, died on July 28; thirty-eight days later, with the last one gone, [she] finally succumbed... her family's first born and its last to leave."
During this, three of Mom's grandchildren live in Florida, as well as great-grandchildren; I've been informed that all of them are OK -- but they've been unable to locate my estranged sister, last known in the Sebring area. Other than that, my relatives down there haven't fared so badly -- others can't say the same and it seems Puerto Rico is worse. The past few months are something to remember, though not in good cheer...
H
