And so. in A New Beginning

Joe’s brother passed away on Sunday. No one even knew he was sick until he sent us an email earlier in the week saying that he had been feeling fatigue and achyness since August and was going into the hospital soon for tests. He said the doctor said it might be lymphoma.
Joe just woke up around six on Saturday morning and said, “Baby, I wanna go to Maine.” (We had already been talking about it.)
I said, “Sure, when?”
He said, “Today.”
He went, thinking he was just going up to access the situation and show his brother support....not knowing Les was going to go into the ICU that day and die the next.
He called me sobbing so hard it took me a few “Who is this”s to figure out it was Joe. I wanted so badly to be there with him! But nobody guessed Les would die that weekend.
Quickly IS the best way to go, of course, if it’s a disease like cancer. Quickly if it’s not discovered soon enough to try for a cure, that is.
I feel kind of like saying that people should not keep things from their loved ones like Les did. BUT. On the other hand, I’m not going to say that because dying is every person’s own business. He didn’t want to spend his last months with everyone worrying and fussing around him. I really can understand that. I think I’d feel that way too.
Anyway…Joe’s on his way back down to get me today and we are heading back up there on Thursday. The family is having an at-home memorial dinner for Les on Saturday, and for the rest of the time Joe and I, their brother Mike and his wife, and sister Ginny will work on sorting out Les’s things and emptying his house. Neither Joe nor Mike live close enough to be able to do that more slowly; they have to just get it done. Sister Ginny lives close, but she can’t be left with all the hard work to do.
So this has been a surprising Thanksgiving week this year.