I had a call earlier this week from my Dad … he said there had been some kind of an accident with a gun and my cousin Ronnie was dead. I hadn’t seen him in probably 15 years – there had been a family reunion at his farm in Lovettsville, VA – back when I was still living in Laurel with Jeannie. It was a gorgeous place – a big 10 acre farm – across the road was another farm, and mountains on the horizon …\n<\/p>\n
\nThat was a long time ago for me – before my changes – and a long time ago for him – before he got divorced. That side of my family was baptist\/fundamentalist – so I never was particularly close to any of them, but its still a big shock to my aunt and the rest of the family, so, out of respect to the family, Emma and I’ll will be going to the visitation on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\nDad’s sister’s son (he was the eldest of her two kids) died around 20 years ago – on reflection, I’d say he may have been part of the first wave who died of GRID … no one says anything like that – but looking back on it, he had the signs of being “family”. Dad’s brother had 4 sons, and Ronnie was his eldest … Of course, I’m the eldest of Dad’s kids – and I’ve had my struggles over the years … but since I met Emma and finally sobered up, life has been great.
\nAnyway – this makes me the remaining eldest of this generation of cousins …\n<\/p>\n
\nWe’ll see how the service and all that goes – I expect to be as low key as possible about everything – but I’m sure there will be the inevitable questions of who I am “… oh – I used to be … ” ” and this is my partner, Emma”
\nI’ll take it as low key as possible … but its over 10 years since the change
\nI’ll be polite and educate them gently … “we are very nice people and
\nwe want to go to Massachusettes later this year and get married!”\n<\/p>\n
\nAh well ……. we’lll see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a call earlier this week from my Dad … he said there had been some kind of an accident with a gun and my cousin Ronnie was dead. I hadn’t seen him in probably 15 years – there … Continue reading