My cousin Steve passed away last night. He'd been battling acute leukemia for a couple months, and his body just couldn't fight it any longer. He hadn't been able to breathe on his own for a week or so, and it just seemed that every time they tried to fix one thing that made something else worse. So, last night around 8:30 they unplugged the machine. His whole family was there, and his pastor. They gathered 'round the bed and prayed and read Scripture, and at 9:30 he passed away rather peacefully.
My cousin Linda called my parents, who then called my sister and I. Although it was 11:15 our time when they called us, and I had been asleep for about an hour. I was a little groggy. At any rate, I feel bad for my cousins Linda and Lori. Linda has just come through a bout of breast cancer, and right before Steve went into the hospital they had to put both their parents in a nursing home (against their wishes). My uncle Harold fell down a flight of stairs, and my aunt Mary suffers from dementia. So it's been a really hard few months for my only cousins on my dad's side of the family.
I don't know of any arrangements yet, but will likely post them here when I find out. I am glad my sister is going to be going to Illinois, as I think this has been pretty hard on my parents. I hope to be able to go at some point, but this is a pretty hard time for me. Carrie is due to have the baby any day (the due date is Monday), Jane's bank is going through a merger and there is no way she can get away right now, and I feel like crap. My eye is still giving me fits, and the antibiotics make me sleepy. I'm not sure I could see well enough to drive there by myself. But we'll see.
Anyway, I didn't know Steve real well. He was my sisters age (maybe 54), so he was a few years older than me. He was always really nice and easy going. Came from a great family. He ran the Centershot ministry for his church. He was the only other Horwedel from this particular family. My dad and his dad each had one son. Fortunately Steve had a son too, to help carry on the name.
In other family-related news, Carrie and Anna moved back to their house yesterday. Drew got home around 10 last night. It was a nice 2 weeks having them around. Having had an empty nest for 6 years or so, it did take a little getting used to at first. But I had grown quite fond of having little Anna-bug around and seeing her smiling face and listening to her little giggles.
I guess I need to do my eye drops. On with the day...
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