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

...that their grandfather died last night

I'm actually doing OK--though I'll admit that it didn't seem really real until we told the girls. Tom didn't get home from the hospital until I-don't-know-when-but-2am-at-the-absolute-earliest (last call on my phone was 1:19am) and wanted to wait until after school to tell the girls so that they would actually be awake.

Thomas (my online convention has always been that Tom is mine, and Thomas is his father--different middle names, so Jr./Sr. doesn't actually apply) has had physical problems for longer than Tom's been alive--he was involved in a major vehicle accident that resulted in multiple shattered bones and the loss of his spleen before he and Tom's mom met, so he's been in a lot of pain--which is most likely why he was an alcoholic (though he'd earned at least his 12 year thing from AA, he'd been off the wagon the last few years, and especially the last couple). The lack of a spleen is actually the thing that saved his life just before I left for the Pennsylvania Duck Meet (already bought, nonrefundable plane tickets--Tom had told me to go)--Thomas was shot right where it should've been, and, had it been there, he would've bled out by the time the ambulance arrived. Turns out spleens are blood storage and have something to do with the immune system... Anyway, he's been saying for years that he wasn't going to be alive much longer--rather insistent about it, in fact, just short of implying that he'd hurry it along. His drinking *was* actually hurrying it along... Most of his meds, barring the pain meds, were for symptoms that would either be nonexistant or extremely negligible if it weren't for alcohol. Anyway, I'm not going to go there (well, any farther)...

Last night, Thomas fell at the top of the stairs outside his apartment. I normally keep the ringer on my phone off, so I missed 4 calls from Patty (Tom's mom) asking for a ride to the hospital (don't know why she didn't ride along in the ambulance--I don't even know if it's normal for an adult to ride along with another adult in an ambulance). She got ahold of Tom, and he went and got her. This was... Maybe 10:30ish? Thomas died around 11. Like I said, Tom got home in the wee hours, and stayed home today. I told Gracie that Papa was staying home today because he didn't get much sleep last night, which was the truth, if not the whole truth. Faith wasn't up yet when I left this morning (she homeschools through a charter school) to take Gracie to school and to continue on to my work.

Sorry for your loss Amy.

Amy I am so very sorry to hear of your loss.

What a shock for you all...

Lighting a for Thomas.

Flowers and prayersfor all the family

Aw Amy I'm sorry to hear that! My condolences to you all!

You have my sympathy, Amy. My grandparents passed when I was 12, 13, 30 and 32 - and my father 7 years ago. Despite being altar boy or pall-bearer for all of these, it never gets easier.

So sad to hear, Amy

So sorry for your family's loss

Deb