Death in the Family

My brother-in-law passed today. He was a relatively young man, in his mid to late 40s. I guess hard livin' was more than the years could account. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones says in the first one, "It ain't the years, it's the mileage." Certainly true in this case.

I find myself more sad than I thought I would be. I certainly wasn't close to Charles, although he was my wife's favorite. I have probably spent all of about 20 hours of my life with the man. I only know him as the drug abusing street person of the 10 years. He was never mean-spirited or dangerous around me, but he always had a hand out. To my wife he was the older brother that looked out for her when the other siblings picked on her, that took her with him on his paper route, that gave her positive attention when the rest of the world didn't care.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family (My wife's sister, and the other 2 brothers) keep calling with minute by minute updates. This is getting very stressful. I suspect we'll be in California early next week to help finish this chapter, but today is just kinda sad.