h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been rather disinclined to go online and talk to people for the last month or so, but now that the darkness has lifted, the need to rejoin the internet community is once again pressing me forward.

My maternal grandfather died on August 4th. People grow old, get into road mishaps, contract an incurable disease... people die all the time and, unless they're exceptionally famous, their deaths usually don't mean anything except to those who are close to them. I suppose that if the said person is very old and wheelchair-bound and going senile, that you would expect death to be just around the corner - and, in your pain in watching the person stumble through life, half-oblivious to things around him, it would not be unnatural for you to wish for a quick end for the person. Yet it can come as a shock when, one day he starts coughing loudly over dinner and your relative feeding him admonishes him for kicking up a fuss and making life miserable, and the next day you find out that he's having respiratory difficulties and systems that eventually fails over the next twenty four hours as you and your family do the emergency waiting room scene at the hospital. I guess it's right to say that, even when you are prepared for something, it can take you by surprise.

So that's pretty much it, really. I'm now minus a grandfather, who was my best friend while I was growing up... and I've run out of grandparents. That kinda sucks, especially when you're incapable of expressing these feelings in spoken words to those closest to you. Ah well.

Oh wait... I'm allergic to tea.

Hi Farlander

I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather

It's good to see you back, though. I'd been wondering where you'd got to...

Yes, sometimes grandparents can be pretty special. I ran out of them a long time ago though.

Sorry to hear it Farlander . That's a bit like how I felt when my father passed away at the beginning of the year. He had gone through so much in the last few years with his life ebbing away minute by minute, yet it still came as a profound shock to us when he finally passed away. Since then I have consoled myself that it was inevitable, and a release for him and my thoughts, when I think of him now, are very pleasent.

Take care,

W

Sorry to hear this news. The most traumatic thing that happened to me when I was a kid was hearing the news that my great grandmother had died. Later, when each of my grandparents died was never quite as bad as that. When you have that one older relative that you bond with and they get taken away from you it leaves a hole that takes time... not to fill again.. just to stop feeling so empty.

Nothing I or anyone else can say can help much, but know that we do care.

You've told me about your grandfather already, but I offer my condolensces once more, my dear Farlander.
I'm also out of grandparents, sort of. I just met my stepgrandparents for the first time at my stepfather's memorial. I kind of hope that I might be able to spend some time with them before they pass on to the next realm.
It's great to see you at hootoo again, though.

Farlander, my friend;

It's not much comfort, I am certain, but you have been blessed to have granparents so late in life. Many of us have only vague memories of friendly aged folks who smelled a little odd and walked very slowly. None of my grandparent memories were of a robust or fun-loving ancestor as I am certain my grandparents had once been.

Losing anyone can be tough, but the hurt is at least offset by having known and loved them at an age where you could truly appreciate them.

The memories will stay around long after the pain has faded to the occasional twinge. It's how we're built, and a survival trait in my mind.

Good luck, and avoid the tea.

My sincere thanks to all of your for your kind words. While I usually treat my journal(s) as a sort of emotional dumping ground for stuff I can't speak out, it is nevertheless comforting to know that there are those who read them and care enough to leave a message. Thanks, you guys.

I've been delegated the task of proofreading and editing my grandfather's massive autobiography (delegated? hell, I asked for the job), being the only one to have ploughed through all three volumes of his atrocious handwriting. The family agreed that maybe we could at least print a few hardcover copies to be handed out as some sort of weird family heirloom; my friend Tycho was firmly convinced, since a great deal of the autobiography dealt with the country's (or at least our city's) history and 'period scene', that it would have a decent readership locally. Of course, the first thing is to get the thing typed and edited (his sense of organisation, though his memory was excellent, was abysmal), but... well, we'll see how things go. I'll probably post the results when we're done here.

Farlander out.

Don't forget a boxed set of CD-ROMs. Keeping all hardcopies sounds good, but look at the family stuff lost in Katrina. The more we disperse our collective knowledge on the internet, the less chance that anything short of a Scotland sized meteor will get all copies.