Gypsy on the Gridiron: Goodbye, Uncle.

Please skip to another blog if you're looking for my usual bubbly self, because you're not going to get it here.

I wasn't going to post this, but I needed to get it out. It also might explain my recent reclusivess (if that's a word) and need to be left alone.

This loss has hit me harder than I imagined; while it was somewhat anticipated by some, it is still a shock to all. This is one that struck so many of us in the family, because he was such a large personality in the group..."the baby"...and is survived by all of his siblings and his mother. We are a very large but very close family, and I wish I could be there with all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, brother, and especially my mother right now.

Mom is one of 7 children, #5, and due to various family situations she grew up fast and took care of her younger siblings. My uncle John was #7 and of all of the siblings he and my mother were always the closest. I don't remember ever being far away from him for very long. He lived with us off and on while I was growing up, and even when he wasn't living with us he was always at the house. He was more like a big brother to me than an uncle. I grew up with him always around, always picking on me, always protecting me. His house was where I first laid eyes on my husband.

John suffered from severe RA...I'm talking extremely severe...to the point that he was always in pain; it controlled his life. Since he'd moved into his current apartment close to my mother, she was there for him. She drove him around to run errands. She brought him anything he needed, and she was there to chat with him when he needed company. She didn't do this out of obligation - she did this because she loved him, and because they were close. Unfortunately, to dull the pain in his joints and bones, John consumed a lot of alcohol. Several weeks ago he was taken to the hospital to flush his system and get some electrolytes into his body. He'd been doing much better recently, and he wasn't drinking as much. He wanted to take better care of himself.

Yesterday, after several unanswered phone calls and then busy signals, my mother found him in his house, deceased from what appears to be a heart attack. I will miss John very much, as the entire family will. The void left by the youngest sibling of the family with such a big personality, so full of life, shocks us all. But above everything, my heart hurts so badly for my mother right now. How very terrible it must be to find somebody you were so close to, your younger sibling, somebody you loved so very much, someone for whom you'd do absolutely anything.