Death in the family

I wasn't sure whether or not I should actually blog about this, but - what is a blog for really? To get something off your chest, to share something with someone...all of the above?

Today was actually a good day. I left work a couple of hours early - my oldest son was having his Elementary School graduation. He will be in the 6th grade next year and will move to Junior High. I was happy, sad and am terrified for him to go to Junior High. My husband surprised me by getting off early as well and showing up at the graduation. Since I was at the graduation, my Father was the one who had to pick my Mother up from work (we normally ride home together) and my younger son from daycare. I left for the graduation at 515pm, my Father left about 530pm. We all returned home around 7pm. From 7pm until around 1030pm or so we are just puttering around the house - living our lives. Somewhere around 1030pm, my oldest son came and told me that he overheard a conversation my Mother was having with someone on her cellphone. He said that my Uncle was dead. It was another hour or so before I heard anything. I was outside and my Father came out - visibly upset. He began to cry and told me that my Uncle had shot himself. To some extent my Father was pissed off - none of us were home when the police came by to inform him around 6pm. We were unable to receive phone calls because our phone has been giving a busy signal (gotta love digital phone service). It wasn't until another Uncle's girlfriend/wife got to her home and got my parent's cell phone numbers - that she called.

The upsetting part for my Father was that he saw this coming and there was nothing that he could have done to stop it. He told me that my Uncle had started telling him where he kept things (collectibles) and how much they were worth. It seems that my Uncle became depressed after my Grandmother passed away 2 years ago and then got worse after one of my Uncles went into the hospital and had a horrible time (dying and being revived a number of times) before finally passing away some time in January (2008). During all of this time my Uncle also began to have health problems including horrible migraines which ended up affecting his vision. He did not want to go to any doctors and obviously did not want to go on living.

While I know that people have heard this and said this a number of times when a family member has passed, but I truly believe that this is all for the best. It will be difficult for my Father and my Uncle (the only family member he has left) as they now start the task of cleaning out 50yrs worth of stuff from my Grandmother/Uncle's home.