Programming Note: Visiting Family In North Carolina This Week
I don't know if I'll be writing much, if anything at all, this week.
Hey, Ogre Nation! I’m driving down to North Carolina tomorrow to see my Aunt Ana. She is the oldest of my remaining aunts and uncles on my father’s side (started with 16, 11 are still with us).1
She’s in hospice with end-stage dementia and we don’t expect her to last much longer so I’m going down while I can. I’ll be staying with my Aunt Jane who has been taking care of her for the last several years as she got progressively worse.
I don’t think I’ll be writing while I’m there. But writing is how I process stress so depending on my mood, I might whip out my laptop and rail at whatever particularly stupid thing some Republican somewhere did that day. Because you know they will.
Either way, I’ll still post random notes because if I can’t write, at least I can make sarcastic observations about the news.
I’ll be driving home Friday to get Jordan off the bus and decompressing after what is sure to be an oh-so-delightful and enjoyable trip to watch a loved one fading away.2 Regular articles will resume next week.
Old school Puerto Rican family and twice as dysfunctional. I literally did not know one of my uncles existed until I was 16. I didn’t know about another one until I was in my 30s. The second one was an extremely uncomfortable experience since he looked exactly like Uncle Chado who had died years ago. So now I know what it feels like to see a ghost.
Fuck you, dementia.
I’m sorry for the loss of your aunt, first to dementia and soon to life. We will welcome whatever venting you post and while I’d love to wish there won’t be any fuckwittery for you to write about, we all know better.
Safe travels.
“Fuck you, dementia.” Considering that I had lost my mother to a combination of this, & renal failure last month I agree with this sentiment.