FA+
Shop
Death in the family
11 years ago
Sometimes you just need a microscope
Grandfather on my fathers side passed away on Tuesday from a massive aneurysm triggering a series of strokes. This worsened his condition to the point where he was able to pull maybe one breath out of every four unassisted. His living will requested that he not be put on life support if he was deemed unrecoverable. Hospital staff stated that he had passed that threshold.
Odd that I can only pity the man now that he's passed. He was not kind nor was he loving to his children and all three of them have different scars from it. Not certain who had the worst of it.
Pops was essentially abandoned to the military. He enlisted and while he was deployed the old man had the rest of the family pack up and move to another state without ever informing him. When he returned strangers were living in the house he grew up in knowing next to nothing about the people who owned the property last. There are amazingly few jobs that a submarine pilot/navigator(I know the proper term, it's just easier to explain this way) is qualified for outside of active duty. He didn't find them again for several years and even then that was only through his sister getting in contact with him. His deliberate advances on pops first wife happened to be a major contributing factor for the failure of that marriage, somewhere out there I've a step sister I've never met and will likely never hear from because of him.
Uncle had a seizure when he was a teenager and was from that moment on shuttered from the outside world. He has extreme problems with social interaction due to having almost all of it removed from him (Outside of rare cases of instant messenger use when "computer time" was allotted.) He is a nice enough man in his way but he's been so shuttered that functioning in society is nearly impossible for him.
Aunt was abused by him and has borne the scars externally for so long now, lashing out and making herself as unapproachable as possible that any contact with her is measured on a per-annum basis and that is on a good year. She still heaps and heaps responsibilities on herself until she is so buried in what she is doing that any attempt to approach her is met with extraordinary aggression. She will constantly remind others of how much work she is taking on and then refuse to let others help mostly to keep them away.
If there were any last words that might have redeemed him, they have long since passed. Somewhere I hope he at least managed to think back on his life and say "I'm sorry" to his family for the damage caused. I really can't find it in me to feel sorry for the man or to mourn his loss. I can only find it in me to pity him and be glad that, despite the damage done, my old man for all his flaws, will never be a mirror of his father and at least my old mans children actually love him instead of despise, pity, or fear him.
Odd that I can only pity the man now that he's passed. He was not kind nor was he loving to his children and all three of them have different scars from it. Not certain who had the worst of it.
Pops was essentially abandoned to the military. He enlisted and while he was deployed the old man had the rest of the family pack up and move to another state without ever informing him. When he returned strangers were living in the house he grew up in knowing next to nothing about the people who owned the property last. There are amazingly few jobs that a submarine pilot/navigator(I know the proper term, it's just easier to explain this way) is qualified for outside of active duty. He didn't find them again for several years and even then that was only through his sister getting in contact with him. His deliberate advances on pops first wife happened to be a major contributing factor for the failure of that marriage, somewhere out there I've a step sister I've never met and will likely never hear from because of him.
Uncle had a seizure when he was a teenager and was from that moment on shuttered from the outside world. He has extreme problems with social interaction due to having almost all of it removed from him (Outside of rare cases of instant messenger use when "computer time" was allotted.) He is a nice enough man in his way but he's been so shuttered that functioning in society is nearly impossible for him.
Aunt was abused by him and has borne the scars externally for so long now, lashing out and making herself as unapproachable as possible that any contact with her is measured on a per-annum basis and that is on a good year. She still heaps and heaps responsibilities on herself until she is so buried in what she is doing that any attempt to approach her is met with extraordinary aggression. She will constantly remind others of how much work she is taking on and then refuse to let others help mostly to keep them away.
If there were any last words that might have redeemed him, they have long since passed. Somewhere I hope he at least managed to think back on his life and say "I'm sorry" to his family for the damage caused. I really can't find it in me to feel sorry for the man or to mourn his loss. I can only find it in me to pity him and be glad that, despite the damage done, my old man for all his flaws, will never be a mirror of his father and at least my old mans children actually love him instead of despise, pity, or fear him.
