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Unpacking BaggageJust going through my luggage, clearing out some things to make way for enlightenment Saturday, July 01, 2006The Slacking BloggerNo... I didn't go on hiatus again although this period of inactivity is almost as long as my attempted hiatus. I've been slacking on the blog but it has definitely not carried over into the rest of my life. Well... there was Thursday when I was so depressed I spent the day in bed. BBBJr got me together and I'm up and about again. Pretty much anyone who has stopped by here on a consistent basis or slummed through the archives knows that I come from a fairly large family... ridiculously large... with folks ranging in age from 2 to 92. With all this family (and play family) death is as frequent a visitor as the Avon lady... wait... she's dead too. Don't let me forget to tell you about her! Death has come by once again without anything sweet-smelling or any cheap costume jewelry. When I was home for Easter, my aunt Jane, told me that my cousin Red was very ill with cancer. In fact he was travelling in search of a treatment that would work. She let me know that whatever he was doing was not working and that the disease had ravaged his body. She was near tears as she described the sight when she visited him in Philadelphia. I still have a clear recollection of walking into another cousin's room and immediately crying at what the disease had done to his once-large frame. It was devastating. As she described the scene to me, I was almost certain that I would not see Red again in this life, but I never attempt to predict what God's gonna do. I simply prepare myself for the worst. The call from my sister came early in the week to let me know that Red had crossed over. He was a fairly young man, somewhere between 50 and 60. He was one of the Georgia cousins so I didn't see him a lot. When I did see him it was always a happy time, which lends to making me even sadder. Truth be told, he was not related to us by blood (that I know of), but his brothers and sister were the children of my grandfather's brother E.C. His mother, Aunt Louise was clearly the person on whom Tyler Perry based his Madea character. She was no stranger to pistols and switchblades and even after having a leg amputated, she continued to fish at the pond. She once tried to get my grandmother to go with her and her reply was... "Girl, I been away from here for 40 years. Them snakes don't know me no more." However she had no issues with sharing the catch of the day. I'm not sure if Aunt Louise had Red before or after she was married to my uncle, but it really didn't matter. We all came up together, regarding each other as cousins... close cousins. Those "if you mess with him you gonna have to mess with me" kind of cousins. I'll miss him. But that's not the end. On the way to the funeral home to view his body, his wife had a accident that left her in critical condition. My sister called again to tell me that she didn't survive her injuries. She's gone too. It's incredibly sad, but I press on and try not to think of it. When I do, I tell myself that all flesh must pass away. But it's hard. What's been most hard for me this week is the one year anniversary of my great-aunt Frankie's passing. Sometimes I still believe that if I had not gone to Chicago and immediately took her to the hospital, things might have turned out differently, but I try not to agonize over it. June has definitely been a little on the crappy side. All my dads are dead so Father's Day sucked, but I'm still blessed nonetheless. I promise that my next post will be piss in your pants funny. I refuse to turn into my Aunt Beulah, whom no one sees until a funeral.  
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