Surreal....

With Hubby's folks in town for the next few weeks, we had placed all sorts of little things on the calendar. Today was going to be a big family picnic with "his" and "hers" kids all meeting at a park. Things didn't quite go as planned though.

My Uncle Jim died this morning. It was a thing that we knew would happen soon. He had been fighting a long and difficult battle with a strong cancer that had ravaged his lungs, brain, and liver. But even though you prepare and know it is coming, it still takes your breath away when it finally happens.

The girls and I headed up to the house this morning as quick as we could so that we could do whatever we could....answer phones, make food, walk the dogs, give hugs, cry, and just be a presence in the swirling sea of numb reality.

Not that I doubt it, but I was struck fresh several times throughout the day how important my family is to me. As I have said before, there is a lot of emotions that roll with so many of my family members. It is said that you can't pick your family and you are just stuck with them. I see that in my family. Were it not for the fact that we are all blood related, we would never be around one another. And yet, whenever there is a crisis, the gloves and resentments go away and we are...family.