We’ve had a death in the family… one of my father’s sisters passed away during heart surgery. It leaves a huge hole in my father’s family. And it has made me realize that that entire generation of my family is heading for the threshold… its an odd thing to contemplate. I suppose I’ve been in denial about all of this, in spite of my father’s cancer (hell, I’ve been in denial about my own!) and the loss of my mother’s oldest brother (one of the younger boys passed some time ago). Somehow, one just assumes that they will always be there, an assumption that is so easy given how infrequently I see them.