Must Be A Full Moon

Man oh man. I swear there's something to that saying, "when it rains, it pours."

Clay called yesterday afternoon to say we needed to visit a friend in the hospital who'd been fighting a courageous battle against what started out as liver cancer last year. Recently, it looked like he only had a couple of months to live but then Clay heard it was a week which was why we needed to visit. So after work, we drove up to the hospital. Bill was pretty much out of it with medication - so different from when Clay saw him on Sunday and even when his beautiful granddaughter, Kelly, talked to him that very morning. Everything seemed to be progressing so quickly but we were hoping he would make it until his sisters flew in the following morning. We stayed until about 9:30 p.m. and heard, the next day, that Bill passed away at about 2:15 a.m. Kelly has just graduated LMU in Los Angeles in their Naval ROTC program and is to be commissioned this Saturday. Fortunately, they had a private commissioning over the weekend so Bill could give her the first salute. Timing couldn't have been more perfect! Well perfect would've been for Bill to be able to attend Kelly's commissioning at LMU this Saturday but this was the next best thing.

At the same time all this drama is going on, there's my brother, Derick. I hate the disease that has imprisoned him and sentenced him to a half-life. Schizophrenia, paranoia and bipolar diseases are crippling in so many ways not just for the victim but for their families, as well. My mother and brother love to feed squirrels in their yard but that has led to a fat, growing population of squirrels AND rats! The neighbors on both sides are very unhappy and we can't blame them!

My little big sister has shouldered much of the burden of taking my mom and brother to all their medical appts and getting them to eat better, etc. Now, she's helping to get bids to help get rid of all the junk that's been collected over the years (imagine Sanford and Son), to mend or build fencing, to clear out huge invasive bamboo, etc. We're trying to do this to avoid lawsuits but also it's long overdue.

Unfortunately, my brother is doing his part to be an obstructionist which is not only frustrating my sister but further inflaming the situation with the neighbors. So, about the only thing we can do is get him and my mom away from the house so the work can begin and continue w/o any interference from him. So, they're coming...here, to Dana Point, for a few days. I can happily report that Clay's responded to my email informing him of this and, to my huge relief, he's accepting of the situation. Hallelujah!