two weeks, two funerals

I think the title is self-explanatory. Funerals are hard, but one on top of the other is, safe to say, harder.

On February 13 my lovely sister-in-law's father passed away. He was an unusually interesting man and we enjoyed our last visit with him, listening to war stories and jokes he pulled. His wife passed away last April, so my SIL lost both of her parents within 10 months. Not fair. "I'm too young," she told me on the phone. I can't help but agree. It's just so sad.

On February 20 our lifelong neighbor Fred Rafols passed away. The Rafols family are one of the few remaining "originals" in our neighborhood, and Fred has always been the most colorful. His boys are a year older and a year younger than I am, and we've gone to school together our whole lives. My emotions have run quite the gamut since the funeral yesterday. I have so much to say, but I'm wrought out. Some things are better left private, I suppose.