Today Ken, the father of Emma, Greta's granddaughter passed away. Poor Emma - in less than 6 months she's lost her grandfather, her grandmother and now her father. 2018 has been a truly awful year *sigh*

Requiescat in pace Ken.

This has been a difficult year. On March 18 John Merchant, the husband and father of relatives of mine, died. On June 9th Emma, my friend's dog was put to sleep. Today the wife of John Merchant passed on. I will so miss Greta as in a way she was my second mother being so motherly when my own mother passed away when I was 15 and of course her 3 ( Read more... )

Emma, my friend's dog, has gone into that good night. Emma was a Welsh Springer Spaniel who was 15 and 3/4 years old who I've known since she was 3 months old (except for the 5 years she spent with her late "daddy" after he and his wife were divorced). She was in good shape until she became 15. Then she lost control of her bladder and peed all over ( Read more... )

In case anyone is curious the obituary of my relative John Merchant, who died on March 18th, is in the Boston Globe. He was an interesting gentleman and a brilliant scientist.

I just realized I hadn't written about the rest of my birthday bash. I had a lovely dinner with some of my relatives at the Stockyard Restaurant in Boston on my birthday. Except for seeing how difficult it was to live with my cousins' parents as they are not healthy and demented I had a wonderful visit and an easy train ride back home as it was not ( Read more... )

Oy vey. When my friend died her husband said to me that of all his friends his age (he was 85) he was the healthiest. Three weeks after his wife's death he complained about a tummy ache and went to a hospital. He came home a few days later telling me that he had a doctor's appointment on the 10th and would find out what was wrong. Unfortunately he ( Read more... )

I haven't posted in a while. A friend of mine has been dying of lung cancer. I'd visit her and see her in her bedroom but the last couple of days she was on a portable hospital-type bed set up in her dining room and totally out of it. I'm told she just died *sigh ( Read more... )

Well the unpredictable happened. My friend CM in Fargo called me on Wednesday, the next day, telling me her stepmother Tillie had passed on early that morning. She planned to come to NY to attend her funeral on Friday. I asked another friend of mine if she could stay in her guest room Thursday night and she said yes. CM flew in on Thursday and we ( Read more... )

What a horrible week. On Tuesday the US was fatally hurt, yesterday Leonard Cohen died and today Robert Vaughn, the Man from U.N.C.L.E. passed away. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel of doom?

ETA: I was mistaken - Leonard Cohen passed away on Monday.

When I was young there was a TV show I loved called "T.H.E. Cat" starring Robert Loggia as an ex-cat burglar named Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat! It was on for only one season but I did my best to follow the actor over the years as he guested in various TV shows and movies like "Big" and "Independence Day". Well he passed away yesterday at age 85. ( Read more... )