5 days til we move

Just 5 days and we get to move into our new apartment. It's exciting and also a little scary. Knowing that last time we tried this, things didn't work out very well, makes it a little unsettling. Circumstances are a lot different now though, and we are set up to succeed this time. Also, if my wife is going to win her disability case, well we now know that's only a month after we move in AND we don't have to rely on it anyways. With the other apartment we were naive enough to think that money would be there soon for us. Also, this apartment is cheaper and nicer. I took off of work Friday and Saturday so that we can get fully moved and settled in. My wife is looking at the apartment as a fresh start. We both feel kind of like our life has been on hold a little bit since we began living with my dad. Plus, since she was in the hospital when I picked out our last apartment she says she never felt like that was home for her. It's another big change in our life, but this one is for the better.

My aunt died thursday morning. Great transition, right? I got a call from my brother that our uncle left his phone number for him to call. Well, since my brother has decided that the only family he has is his brothers he didn't want to call. I called my uncle and he told me that she had passed. It was a bit of a shock. I heard a few months ago that she had cancer. I pleaded with my mom to find out more information about her sister, but because of their falling out about a year and a half ago, she decided it was just a ploy to get her to talk to her again. Come to find out it was no ploy. She was really bad sick for about 4 months, then spent her last few days asking for her sister that never made it by her side. It's sad really. Pathetic even. We were all pretty close growing up. My mom and her were best friends. She wasn't a good person. She made a lot of mistakes and treated her own children pretty terrible. Honestly she was one of the biggest mental terrorists I've ever seen, when it came to her kids. Over the last few years she made a lot of choices that further alienated her from her family. She up and left the guy she'd been with for 15+ years and her kids who were at least grown up by then, for a guy in North Carolina that she met on the internet. He booted her out after just a few months. She then went to Florida to be with her daughter who had done the same thing just a year before her. She met a guy down there but, as goes with her it didn't last and she was back to st. louis where they were both homeless and then parted ways.

Then she lived with my mom but refused to pay her rent, instead choosing to blow all her disability money at the casino each week. The lady hardly worked her entire life. She always seemed to find a way for either her kids, her boyfriend/husband, or the government to provide her with an income. Well, my mom kicked her out after a few months and they got into a heated argument and threats were made. She weasled her way back into her oldest sons arms and I don't know much after that. I can only assume he let her get away with whatever she wanted. Well, now she's dead and even with all that, I couldn't imagine finding out my brother had cancer and not being by his side. I called my mom after talking to my uncle and she seemed to not care. I know she will regret it though, if she already isn't. My aunt left no money for a funeral and they decided to simply cremate her and spread her ashes. The cremation happened on friday and the cheap memorial is supposed to happen next week. I don't know my aunt's exact age but she wasn't even 50 years old yet. The only real lesson I get from my aunt is that giving up on life is never an option and that if you alienate those you love, you will die alone. It's a sad life to have lived.

Unfortunately, at this time, my wife's grandmother is in the hospital too. She has been in there all week because of a bad stroke she had. They found something in her brain that's been either a blood clot or a narrowing of the vessels. Either way, they started to perform brain surgery on her the other day but, something failed and they have to try again. Hopefully, nothing happens to her, but I think everyone is mentally preparing for the worst. She's an older woman, 70s i think, still not very old. But, she has never really taken care of herself. She has a lot of support though and it's pretty much the complete opposite of my aunt. Friends and family have been by her side all week. The lady has been told she was going to die if she didn't change her ways for the last dozen years probably. She's a pretty tough woman.

It's been a rough week. I have 3 days off next week. Boy do I need them.