suddenly passing
My father passed away this evening.
I don't know the details; it happened suddenly at home. He may have fallen and had an accident, he may have had a heart attack, I'll get details. He was able to call a neighbor for help; the neighbor called 911, but Dad was not responding by the time paramedics arrived, and he was declared dead at DeGraaf Hospital. My brother John got to the hospital.
We'll talk about arrangements. mvt, marahsk, and I had gone out for dinner in Chinatown. I was not fully unpacked from Capricon, which is to I hadn't managed to plug in the cell phone charger at home, so it wasn't charged, so people couldn't reach me. My brothers both tried my personal mobile and my US mobile phone, but I wasn't carrying it. I got the news when we got home. We threw clothes in a couple of bags and hit the road. I'm in Niagara Falls now. I'm meeting John at Dad's house in the morning and we'll figure things out from there. Sharon, unfortunately, knows all the arrangements that need to be taken care of in the short term.
I'm taking a week off work. That's going to make people unhappy, as a number of meetings had been planned around my convenience. Project deadlines will be missed. I will miss the First Thursday fannish pub night in Toronto, not to mention the SFContario meeting planned for Sunday (the meeting is postponed to a date to be decided).
My mood, well, processing things like shock, guilt, anger. My normal mode is glass half-full, but I'm not feeling that right now. One of the worst aspects of this is the utter lack of novelty. Last year, we went to the lawyer, the will said everything went to Dad. Now it will all be more complicated. I feel relieved and guilty that Paul will get the work of being executor. Uwe is probably in Amsterdam by now; he was going to visit his family in Germany, but he'll have to head back somehow.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Got to get some sleep, got to get up early. More info as time permits.
I don't know the details; it happened suddenly at home. He may have fallen and had an accident, he may have had a heart attack, I'll get details. He was able to call a neighbor for help; the neighbor called 911, but Dad was not responding by the time paramedics arrived, and he was declared dead at DeGraaf Hospital. My brother John got to the hospital.
We'll talk about arrangements. mvt, marahsk, and I had gone out for dinner in Chinatown. I was not fully unpacked from Capricon, which is to I hadn't managed to plug in the cell phone charger at home, so it wasn't charged, so people couldn't reach me. My brothers both tried my personal mobile and my US mobile phone, but I wasn't carrying it. I got the news when we got home. We threw clothes in a couple of bags and hit the road. I'm in Niagara Falls now. I'm meeting John at Dad's house in the morning and we'll figure things out from there. Sharon, unfortunately, knows all the arrangements that need to be taken care of in the short term.
I'm taking a week off work. That's going to make people unhappy, as a number of meetings had been planned around my convenience. Project deadlines will be missed. I will miss the First Thursday fannish pub night in Toronto, not to mention the SFContario meeting planned for Sunday (the meeting is postponed to a date to be decided).
My mood, well, processing things like shock, guilt, anger. My normal mode is glass half-full, but I'm not feeling that right now. One of the worst aspects of this is the utter lack of novelty. Last year, we went to the lawyer, the will said everything went to Dad. Now it will all be more complicated. I feel relieved and guilty that Paul will get the work of being executor. Uwe is probably in Amsterdam by now; he was going to visit his family in Germany, but he'll have to head back somehow.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Got to get some sleep, got to get up early. More info as time permits.