We couldn't wait for 2013 to end. . . . .2014 has started off even worse!

[NYH1]

In 2013 our family knew 8 people (9 if we include AC) that passes away. In April our neighbors on one side of us passed away. In June the neighbor on the other side of us passed away. On Oct 29th my Grandma passed away (my mom's mom, my last living grandparent). Then ten days later on Nov. 8th my Uncle passed away (my mom's brother and Grandma's son). Then Army Chief passed away. On Dec. 12th. another really good friend of our family, mainly mine, passed away, every time I go to the shop and he's not sitting in his chair pin striping or put flames on a set of tins on his bench it kills me. On Christmas Eve our middle daughter's boss passed away. My wife knew two people from when she was younger that also passed away. 2013 we tough, that's for sure, we couldn't wait for it to end.

It's continuing into this year. Two weeks ago the lady that lived across the street from my parents who I've known my whole life passed away after a long illness. Her three kids were our age, we all grew up together. Then Monday my aunt, my mom's older sister passed away. So my mom's lost her mother, her brother and her sister in three months.

This one is hard for me. See I lived in the city. . . . .but should have been a country boy. My aunt lived three hours away on a 475 acre dairy farm in a very rural part of the state. I used to spend a good part of my summers up there when I was a kid and loved it. I never wanted to come home. I could drive just about anything by the time I was 10, tractors, trucks with manual trannys, piece of cake. They taught me everything they taught their own kids, treated me like I was one of their own. We'd ride the tires off our ATV's, went through hundreds of thousands of 22 lr rounds. If my parents couldn't take me up there for one reason or another, they'd drive down to get me.

Then as I got older and things changed in life, girls, jobs, that kind of stuff I wasn't able to go up there as much. Especially with my last job. There were years in a row where I wasn't able to go up. Her and I were just talking at my uncles services back in November how I was going to bring the kids up and spend some time with her and my uncle. The last thing she said to me as she looked at my uncle (her brother) in his casket was, "I'll be next". I talked to uncle (her husband) yesterday and he told me to make sure I'm still going to bring the kids up when the weather gets better.

This sucks, NYH1.

[Onyx Z]

Sorry to hear that man... spend as much time with loved ones as you can. You never know who's next.

A really close aunt of mine (mom's bro's wife) was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer at the beginning of January. She beat breast cancer 30 years ago, but this time, it's a whole other animal.

[SteyrAUG]

I hear ya. I been in many houses in my life but very few that were actually "a home." A "home" is rare because the people that reside there are genuine and as a result are true "friends" or "family" rather than "acquaintances" or "relatives." They are also typically very welcoming to those of their kind.

When I was younger growing up there were dozens of "homes" open to me. Places I could literally show up unannounced and be welcomed, fed and could stay the night if I wished. Most of these "homes" were located in fantastic areas that were amazingly stress free and time spend there would take away most of the stress you had been carrying all year.

As I've gotten older and people have passed away one by one these "homes" have ceased to exist and now are simply houses again where I once played, ate wonderful food and spent time with some of the greatest people on the planet.

My last trip back to Iowa, where I once had many family "homes" and dozens of other "you are welcome any time" variety "homes", it set in real hard that I didn't have a single "home" left in the state I always considered home. The nursing home where my grandmother now resides is hardly a home, and she is now in the advanced stages of Alzheimers and sometimes doesn't recognize people. The home where she and my Grandfather lived is now sold, and even though it's been uninhabitable for about a decade now, it is officially no longer a "home" in the sense I always knew and thought would be there forever.

At the cemetery in town where I visited the people most important to me who have passed on it occurred to me that I am now little more than a visitor in my own home town and there isn't a single home left.