This morning, I woke up to a message from one of my 2nd cousins in the UK that their mother — my cousin — had passed away in Hospice at age 93.
Although there was 30 years between us, age wise, Birte was the last living family member from my parents' generation... leaving us with a "closed book" for that particular branch of the family.
In case you are wondering how I ended up with a 93-year old cousin, it is simply of the family quirks... my Dad being the youngest sibling by 14 years, and subsequently her family having kids early, and my parents having me when Mom was 39 and Dad was 42.
Although I was not particularly close to this branch of the family, it is still strange — and somewhat sobering — to think of the "end of an era." In fact, I know find myself at age 64, being the oldest living member of this branch of the family tree.
Of course, we were never all that close as a family, primarily as a result of the fact that we scattered rather widely around the world. Although the family is Danish, there are currently more family members living outside Denmark than in it... myself included.
My cousin's son who left the UK for Australia many years ago would have been the oldest person in the direct line in the family... except for the fact that he committed suicide almost 30 years ago. I guess you can't exactly call us "one big happy family!"
But enough about death and family tragedies!
Around these parts, we are bracing ourselves for "some weather" over the next few days. There's a low pressure cyclone sitting off the coast of Washington state that supposedly will produce the highest winds since 1962.
That means there's a really good chance we will lose both power and Internet Monday and/or Tuesday because it has been raining steadily for a week and the ground is soaked and soft... and now the trees will be buffeted by high winds... fun, fun!
We love living here in our beautiful tall forests, but when the fall and winter storms come, certain modern amenities become a bit dodgy. Much of the technology infrastructure around here has not been modernized in 15-20 years and even though there is often "lots of talk" about getting these utilities put underground, the money is usually missing, or the plans never torn into actual courses of action.
Anyway, we are charging up all our electronics and rechargeable batteries for our camping lanterns, just in case. The only positive about the inbound weather system is that we are on the "lee side" of our little peninsula so wind damage will likely be less here... time will tell.
Anyway, I am prepared to miss a few days of work and blogging if the worst of it hits us here.
I suppose it also means that I will be raking the last of the autumn leaves, later this week!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 2024.11.17 23:30 PST
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