My mom's older brother, the uncle that I had mentioned in a prior journal as having cancer, has finally passed away. The cancer formed originally in his lungs from years of smoking - he was smoking to the end - and eventually spread out. He had bone cancer, which I'm told is absolutely excruciating, organ cancer and brain cancer from what I remember. 70% of his brain had been eclipsed by a tumor before he passed. As big of an asshole as he'd been throughout my childhood, he shouldn't have died that way. I wouldn't wish that kind of death on anyone. Ok, maybe Osama but... Even in my morally lax mentality, I wouldn't submit someone to that type of death. My uncle was diagnosed well over a year ago and had been given only a few weeks to live. Somehow, he managed to exceed all expectations and survive a lot longer than a few weeks.

His death wasn't a shock to the family, though. Beyond knowing it was going to happen sooner or later, my mom, her siblings and my grandmother had made repeated trips to upstate NY to the VA hospital where my uncle was staying. While he looked completely healthy from the outside and had a pretty upbeat attitude, my family knew he was being eaten up from the inside and that his time was drawing near. He knew and accepted that he was dying as well. I regret that he only became likeable once he knew there was no chance of survival. It is amazing the way death can change someone's life.

So, my mother and her family is a mess... My poor father is beside himself. He doesn't know whether to commiserate with my mom or continue to allow his dislike of the man show through. On top of that, mom being in NY leaves him home with my brother. While Bobby has come a LONG way in just a year's time, he's still not a full mental grown-up. He doesn't have a car and when he gets into nicotine withdraw, it's best just to throw cigarettes at him and then go into hiding. *shakes head*

As for me, I'm being as supportive as I can. I was asked to 'pick something you want of his'... *scratches head* Seeing as I never knew what the man had... kind of hard to know what to ask for. I left it to my mom; if I don't get something... *shrug* I'm back in school till March 5th, what fun. The new instructor is very anal retentive. Nice, but anal retentive. All of the work that was optional in prior courses is now mandatory... that's a LOT of reading and writing. I have less focus this time than I've had since the start. Part of me says I don't even want to be bothered. Another part says this is too much to handle considering the 100 other things going on in my life. The practical side of me says it's too late to withdraw so I may as well bite the bullet and pull off a good grade. *eyes cross* What I'd really like to do is to play WoW for a few hours each night and hide from the world to relax. Guess my inner anti-social monster has surfaced again.

Anyway... that's my quick update for the day.