Black Tuesday

I remember clearly in junior high school stating that Tuesdays were my Mondays, meaning that they were routinely rotten, awful days.  Here we go again.

While I was in the shower this morning, the Knight answered the phone to find out of town brother inlaw explaining that his in town wife - my sister - had been in a wreck.  The long and the short of it is that she’s fine, but her SUV very well may be totaled.  She swerved to avoid a deer, coming straight at her driver’s door.

Dae - my father inlaw - is a strong, silent man.  He NEVER calls me at home unless it’s an emergency.  So, when he direct connected me (we’re part of the Sprint-Nextel world) and simply said “Call me at home” I knew it was serious.  I feel lower than whale dung.  My surrogate grandfather passed away this morning, and I hadn’t seen him in over a year.  His wife lost a very short battle to cancer a few years ago, and I’d promised to be better about visiting.  I was, but only because I hadn’t seen them at all to speak of in the decade prior to her illness. 

Dae and I are going to prepare a little remembrance page to post at the firehouse as he was a founding member of our station, so I’ll share that here too, complete with a photo of the great man.  Both of my biological grandfathers had died before I was born, and my only step-grandfather died when I was six, so “Channie” (pronounced Ch-ann-EE) and his wife were great stand-ins.  He was a perfect grandfather figure.  He was a farm manager on a big race horse estate, and I had the run of the place.  He was warm, funny, and I can’t believe there will be no more hugs and laughter.  

Now, I have to go call my poor sister, as if her day wasn’t bad enough.