Tuesday, April 29, 2008

*Check* This week sucks.

So the last few days have sucked in a large and grand way, and it is totally and completly unrelated to my being sick. Oh sure that's been touch and go too, with a trip to the DR on Friday for something new and exciting to try.

However on Thursday my Uncle was killed in a car accident on the Highway. An accident I drove through the middle of only minutes after it happened and said to my mom, Wow I totally recognize that truck. Yeah ya think? Roger was married to my mothers sister for ten years or so. My dad remained close to him and we ran our beef cattle on the ranch for years. I think stunned is a good word for how we've been.

Then yesterday I'm sitting waiting for G to be finished with his star testing when I get a call from Bill.
"Where are you?"
"In Eureka, why?"
"Walt collapsed and Barbie is asking for you."
"Whaaa???!!! Me? Umm... headed that way."

Ok, back story. Walt works with Bill at his mill. They've been pretty close. I've met them a few times and we always hang out together at company crap and tend to end up together if we are at the same place at the same time. She's outgoing and loud and he's an old hard core biker dude. You couldn't help but like them. But these aren't really people we "socialized" with much. I wouldn't have thought to call Barbie to go out to lunch with ya know? Not because she wouldn't be fun to hang with, but because she wouldn't immediately into my head.
Not only did she ask for me, she couldn't remember our number so she called the mill and asked them to send "Billy Bobs" wife.
So I went. Because that's what you do.
If she wanted me to be there I was going to be there. All I knew was that he'd collapsed in their driveway. I assumed heart attack and hoped for the best.
I walked into the family only waiting room in the ER just as they told Barbie her husband was dead. They just closed on their new house, their first together, on Friday. They were moving in when he collapsed. Barbie had no idea what to do. So not only was she grieving and blaming herself (which we got stopped!) she had no clue how the process works. She had to deal with the coroners office and an inquest, which they do with all unexpected deaths, which could have hit her either way, and she took that right in stride. She opted for an autopsy since the DR was only 80% sure it was a massive heart attack, it could have been an aneurysm which runs in his family. She also donated his organs. Over 60 people will be helped with skin graphs alone. By the time anyone close to me dies I'll be an old pro at this. A G said on Monday... "Death just doesn't bother me anymore."
We're/they're having his memorial on Sunday in Eureka. The other is Wednesday in Ferndale.

This is a shitty way to fill up my social calender.