Bad news really blows

Man. This has really been a bad year. I got an email from my mom about two weeks ago, with a family update. My Uncle Clyde had died. Uncle Clyde was my grandmother's last remaining sibling, she lost her other brother, Uncle Lou, a long while ago. Uncle Clyde was great. Whenever I would visit my grandparents in Newton, he would drive an hour down from Marshall, just to see us. Or he would make it a point to call, just to talk for a bit. Great man who loved his family, all of it. It's a sad shame that no one made it to his funeral to pay their last respects. I'm 1100 miles away, and swamped at work, not a good excuse, but his own grandson thought it was more important to go to a gun show than to attend. There weren't enough relatives in attendance for pall bearers, so my cousin told me.

The same email told me that my Uncle Jim, grandma's oldest son, my dad's oldest brother, has now become paralyzed from the waist down due to his cancer. He won't last the year.

Also in the email, Grandad is getting worse (this same grandma's husband). He was in the hospital a while ago because he couldn't breathe. Spent about a week there, and is now back home, but tells my dad that he's ready for all this suffering to end. That's rough to hear.

I'm a little drunk tonight. Second time in two nights. Before this, I hadn't been drunk since 4th of July last year. The reason though, is not celebratory. Yesterday I got a call from my mom, telling me that a really good friend of mine was found dead in her bathtub, from an epileptic seizure.

Megan was an angel. We knew each other all through school, it was hard not to with a school so small, but when I was a tiny freshman in high school, Megan befriended me for some reason. She was a grade ahead of me, but she included me when groups of people would go out. For 3 years we were close.

She would always say to me, at the end of the day, "I love you, Brent"; to which I'd arrogantly reply, complete with cocky grin, "I know."

When she graduated, I finally replied with an "I love you too." She had become one of my best friends, but after she graduated, she moved away, and I didn't see her much after that. We'd chat every now and then, but after my graduation I left for the military, and lost touch with many of my old school friends.

Occasionally I'd see her during my visits home, and we'd hug and catch up on old times, but that was it. Still, the pain of losing an old friend somehow feels no different than if we had remained close up to now.

Goodbye, Megan.