Actual life-and-death Dramas
There is a member of my extended family who currently is the focus of an intense medical drama. Lets call him "C". C lives 1,000 miles away from the Metroplex, has never married, is in his early 40s and is a bad alcoholic (I am sitting here thinking about that last part...is there such a thing as a "good" alcoholic?). Because of the gross dysfunctionality of my birthfamily, I have not been a part of C's life since he was a small child. Not all gifts come wrapped in shiny red paper. Some come disguised as tragedies.
C's condition isn't good. I ran the medical details past sttatus_quo. I asked her if he had a 5% chance of living. sttatus_quo said the odds aren't that high.
Earlier in the day, I talked briefly with C's brother, my pet nephew, "H". H just sounds hollow and distracted. H loves people freely and openly. He gives of himself without agenda or self-serving.
I have spent several hours tonight on the phone with C's Dad. Things are bad enough that C's Dad is going to be physically in the presence of his truly-crazy Ex-spouse, C's Mama, my ex-sister. I talked funeral plans with C's Dad and then we talked about the power of Prayer. And we talked about how irrational and crazy his ex-wife is and what a bully she is and how afraid of her he is.
C's Mama doesn't deal well with funerals. When the first phone call went out that my 89-year-old mother was in the hospital and not expected to make it, C's Mama got out her passport and bought a ticket to China. She was gone for 2 weeks. And, then there was another funeral where C's Mom chugged a bottle of Heaven Hill Whiskey and had to be taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.
Being a good daughter of The South, I have a fair number of Funeral Stories. If you have a taste for that sort of thing, come sit next to me sometimes and just ask me to tell them to you. I will. I am the family member who gets the assignment of planning the funeral. I don't do the medical details but I know how to deal with the funeral home, the cemetery and the priest.
H isn't speaking to my other two sisters, so they hadn't heard about this disaster. I phoned them. C is most likely going to die. I thought they needed to hear about it. People tend to take it personally when blood-kin has lingered for weeks in the hospital and no one bothered to phone until the funeral plans have been finalized. The blond sister wanted to talk about the fight she is having with my red-headed sister. The fight is over who is going to pay to replace a taillight on a 1996 Crown Vic. I had to remind her that dead was worse than a busted tail light.
You know, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I have never had to make up stuff. I have them to provide me with all the raw material anyone could possibly use. Wall-eyed-crazy.
The red-headed sister told me that there is a good chance that her husband may have finally given up on living, too. We have been waiting for him to die for several years now. He has lost a leg and his vision and he has been on maintenance dose chemo for over two years. She said that he has stopped eating and he won't get out of bed and when their son goes in there to try and get him to do something, his Daddy gets mean. He does mean better than most.
So, we could have a race to the grave yard going on here.
C's condition isn't good. I ran the medical details past sttatus_quo. I asked her if he had a 5% chance of living. sttatus_quo said the odds aren't that high.
Earlier in the day, I talked briefly with C's brother, my pet nephew, "H". H just sounds hollow and distracted. H loves people freely and openly. He gives of himself without agenda or self-serving.
I have spent several hours tonight on the phone with C's Dad. Things are bad enough that C's Dad is going to be physically in the presence of his truly-crazy Ex-spouse, C's Mama, my ex-sister. I talked funeral plans with C's Dad and then we talked about the power of Prayer. And we talked about how irrational and crazy his ex-wife is and what a bully she is and how afraid of her he is.
C's Mama doesn't deal well with funerals. When the first phone call went out that my 89-year-old mother was in the hospital and not expected to make it, C's Mama got out her passport and bought a ticket to China. She was gone for 2 weeks. And, then there was another funeral where C's Mom chugged a bottle of Heaven Hill Whiskey and had to be taken to the hospital to have her stomach pumped.
Being a good daughter of The South, I have a fair number of Funeral Stories. If you have a taste for that sort of thing, come sit next to me sometimes and just ask me to tell them to you. I will. I am the family member who gets the assignment of planning the funeral. I don't do the medical details but I know how to deal with the funeral home, the cemetery and the priest.
H isn't speaking to my other two sisters, so they hadn't heard about this disaster. I phoned them. C is most likely going to die. I thought they needed to hear about it. People tend to take it personally when blood-kin has lingered for weeks in the hospital and no one bothered to phone until the funeral plans have been finalized. The blond sister wanted to talk about the fight she is having with my red-headed sister. The fight is over who is going to pay to replace a taillight on a 1996 Crown Vic. I had to remind her that dead was worse than a busted tail light.
You know, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I have never had to make up stuff. I have them to provide me with all the raw material anyone could possibly use. Wall-eyed-crazy.
The red-headed sister told me that there is a good chance that her husband may have finally given up on living, too. We have been waiting for him to die for several years now. He has lost a leg and his vision and he has been on maintenance dose chemo for over two years. She said that he has stopped eating and he won't get out of bed and when their son goes in there to try and get him to do something, his Daddy gets mean. He does mean better than most.
So, we could have a race to the grave yard going on here.