Returned home at 4:00 AM this morning from our jaunt to the lower 48. Originally planned to spend a week in Washington and a week or so in Pennsylvania with my brother and his wife (who has been going through chemo/radiation. We got to Washington and two days in, my sister-in law succumbed to her cancer. My brother asked that we postpone our visit, so we changed our plans and went to see a son in Kansas City in his new house at his new job, a trip that was originally planned for January. SIL wanted no funeral or memorial service, but asked for a celebration of life "in the spring". I guess a trip will now be planned in the spring, but the date/time is yet to be determined.
I had been worried when you disappeared again, @Don Alaska ; but I was thinking that you had mentioned traveling at some point, so I was not quite ready to send Sgt. Preston of the Yukon to search for you. Sorry to hear about your SIL’s passing, but it sounded like it was not totallly unexpected. Glad that you were able to visit with your son and I am thinking that you enjoyed the warmer weather on your trip, too. Glad to have you back home again and back on the forum !
She was not expected to die, at least at this point. She had been improving and building her strength, but she developed bilateral pneumonia and just went downhill rapidly.
Sorry about your SIL Don, glad you got to see your son early though. Time for us to take a trip but most of our relatives are sick with this super cold going around, which we are still getting over it ourselves.
Good to see you back, Don. Sorry to hear of your SIL's passing. It's always tough when you know their time is limited...relief and grief get all mixed up. I hope your brother is doing OK. I've known a few folks who have passed and made a similar request to that of your SIL, or who just did a small family memorial event somewhere.
We didn't have a big thing for my brother's funeral. Just the siblings and their spouses, a couple of cousins, and an aunt. We didn't use the pastor of the home church. Instead, we used a first cousin who is the pastor of another church.