Not the normal stuff

Not much of a happy note, but couldn't not

A whirlwind of emotions this past week. We somewhat spontaneously decided as a family and with my sisters and their families to go to the beach for the weekend. We were all very excited about it as it's not something we commonly do even year to year. My mom called last Wed. morning to say that my cousin, Joseph who's fifteen had taken the car in the middle of the night and was in a single-car accident and was pretty banged up and would have a long recovery but the doctors said he would be fine. The next morning my mom called to tell me he died during the night of well we're not completely sure yet, at least I'm not, but heart trauma, heart attack, something like that, that didn't matter as much as the fact that he was gone. He was the baby of all of the cousins in my family and way too young and sweet to be gone. It is still so hard to accept.
So we postponed our plans as soon as we heard, we visited with my uncle and learned the funeral wouldn't be until today because of the autopsy and I'm not sure what else. Anyway we decided later that we would go ahead on to the beach, as we'd already paid and didn't feel like we could do too much here. Uncle David had a lot of family and support around him. Being at the beach with everyone was wonderful. The kids loved it. Laura loved "swimming" with her floaties in the pool (in Carm's condo), Cole loved being chased by the waves and Hannah loved chasing the birds. Brandon was a trooper (still recovering from hernia surgery) even though this wasn't his dream vacation he hung in there with us. All of the cousins got along fairly well. We lounged, played, got sunny and sandy.

Unfortunately Monday came and we had to come back and I think it hit me on Sunday how much I did not want to come home and back to reality. I wished so much I could take the hurt away for Uncle David and my cousin Patrick and that I could see Joseph again. My mom said that even while he was in so much pain he was polite with the nurses, saying thank you, yes ma'am and no ma'am. He was a good kid, just not sure about life. His viewing was last night and they had a collage and video of pics of him and it was all so surreal. The funeral was today and again just so surreal, I still can not believe this has happened. He was so young. I know there's a plan, I know that he is being loved and cared for. I know that I will have a chance to see him again. It really puts a perspective on what's important in life. Things fade away, people live on forever and they're what means the most.