I know the boards have been pretty dry lately, and I'm sorry to only really update on a negative note... My grandfather passed away on June 3rd of this year. He was 80 years old. He served in World War II as a Marine, and I later found out he was part of the Navy, Coast Guard and was a volunteer firefighter. He later started his own landscaping business, which he ran until he was 78 years old. He passed away due to complications from heart surgery, despite the excellent physical condition he was in for most of his life. Initially he had conjestive heart failure, and it was later discovered that he had 3 main arteries blocked 90-99 percent, which resulted in immediate heart surgery. After the surgery he was never the same and had problems with his lungs filling with fluid, and ultimately relapsed enough times to ensure he would never get out of the hospital after 2 months.
As if that wasn't painful enough, my father passed away on June 9th, his birthday. He was 57 years old. He had suffered a heart attack back in 1991, but his heart was never quite the same since. After speaking to the medical examiner yesterday and learning the results of the autopsy, she informed me that he had severe "arterio-sclerotic disease of the aorta." I called him to wish him a happy birthday under the circumstances and offered to take him out to dinner. He agreed and told me he "appreciated the gesture." Little did I know a half an hour later, he'd be dead. He served time in the Air Force and later shuffled through a series of jobs before he ultimately became a taxi cab driver. He and my mother separated in 2001, but didn't officially divorce until 2005.
Why am I informing you guys of this? Well, I have been posting here for a number of years and have gotten to know some members here on a deeper level. Am I looking for sympathy? No. Why I am really writing this is to basically remind people that life is short. Everybody here has that one person in their family, or one acquaintence, that they'd prefer not to deal with. For me, that was my father. We did not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and nearly every time we spoke, it resulted in a heated argument. He was not an overall happy person, and I decided that I coudln't handle the negativity some years ago and chose to begin to distance myself from him. He is now dead and as you can imagine I regret the way I chose to handle our relationship. Losing two people who were very important to me in such a short time has completely sideswiped me and frankly I am overwhelmingly sad and confused at the same time.
What I am trying to say is this: Give that extra hug; make that extra phone call; say "I love you" one more time. Basically, appreciate the relationships you have and maintain them. Even if there's people you dislike or distance yourself from, be the bigger person and extend your hand. Even if things are not successful, you will at least know you did all that you could. As I sit here typing this and thinking of this overall situation, it's very bizarre to me and confusing, being that I have two major deaths within the same week. Sadly, my father has passed and I haven't even been able to bury my grandfather yet. What's even sadder is that I believed all of what I am saying right now and I STILL DISTANCED MYSELF ANYWAY. God forbid anyone ends up in a situation like this, the last thing you need to be worrying about is if you spent enough time with the person or did everything you could to maintain a relationship. Eventually I'll be posting regularly again, but I know there are good people on this board and I felt compelled to share these details with you.
God bless you all.
-Chris
As if that wasn't painful enough, my father passed away on June 9th, his birthday. He was 57 years old. He had suffered a heart attack back in 1991, but his heart was never quite the same since. After speaking to the medical examiner yesterday and learning the results of the autopsy, she informed me that he had severe "arterio-sclerotic disease of the aorta." I called him to wish him a happy birthday under the circumstances and offered to take him out to dinner. He agreed and told me he "appreciated the gesture." Little did I know a half an hour later, he'd be dead. He served time in the Air Force and later shuffled through a series of jobs before he ultimately became a taxi cab driver. He and my mother separated in 2001, but didn't officially divorce until 2005.
Why am I informing you guys of this? Well, I have been posting here for a number of years and have gotten to know some members here on a deeper level. Am I looking for sympathy? No. Why I am really writing this is to basically remind people that life is short. Everybody here has that one person in their family, or one acquaintence, that they'd prefer not to deal with. For me, that was my father. We did not see eye-to-eye on a lot of things and nearly every time we spoke, it resulted in a heated argument. He was not an overall happy person, and I decided that I coudln't handle the negativity some years ago and chose to begin to distance myself from him. He is now dead and as you can imagine I regret the way I chose to handle our relationship. Losing two people who were very important to me in such a short time has completely sideswiped me and frankly I am overwhelmingly sad and confused at the same time.
What I am trying to say is this: Give that extra hug; make that extra phone call; say "I love you" one more time. Basically, appreciate the relationships you have and maintain them. Even if there's people you dislike or distance yourself from, be the bigger person and extend your hand. Even if things are not successful, you will at least know you did all that you could. As I sit here typing this and thinking of this overall situation, it's very bizarre to me and confusing, being that I have two major deaths within the same week. Sadly, my father has passed and I haven't even been able to bury my grandfather yet. What's even sadder is that I believed all of what I am saying right now and I STILL DISTANCED MYSELF ANYWAY. God forbid anyone ends up in a situation like this, the last thing you need to be worrying about is if you spent enough time with the person or did everything you could to maintain a relationship. Eventually I'll be posting regularly again, but I know there are good people on this board and I felt compelled to share these details with you.
God bless you all.
-Chris
