I posted this in reply to another Thread just a few minutes ago. It seems appropriate that it be posted here as well. I grew up in a very elderly extended family. I was an only child. The next youngest person to me was my mother. And my mother was middle aged by the time I came along. I spent my whole childhood going to one funeral after another as all of my elderly relatives died off, one-by-one.

Back then, there was no discussion of such a thing as a grieving process. Death was just something that happened. We went to the wakes & to the funerals. Sometimes there was a reception afterwards. Then we went home & went back to doing whatever it was we did.

They're all long gone now... including my parents. I don't really think about any of them very much. But, every so often, they make their way back into my thoughts... some good... some not so... It was all a long time ago...