Sad Days

It's been a difficult month for me.  My brother Mike (3rd oldest) passed away August 3, 2017 in his sleep. 



We still don't know exactly why (the coroner is doing an autopsy, but hasn't finished with all the testing yet).  He was only 58, and was actually doing better health-wise - his doctor had taken him off his high blood pressure medications because he was doing so well with diet and exercise.

We had the funeral on Saturday the 26th, so I finally feel like I can start moving forward again.  The whole family gathered - well, all the siblings and most of the in-laws, plus Mike's daughter Jen and her mother Judy and her sister Christina.  I was their liaison since there's still a  lot of bad feeling towards Jen's mom Judy.  Apparently refusing to deal with her is being loyal to Mike.  Funny, I didn't know there were sides.  Mike certainly didn't take sides, he wanted to have a good relationship with his daughter and his ex-wife, and he did.  So there was more drama than their should have been.  

Plus my Dad's wife kept trying to get rid of Mike's stuff.  It all belongs to Jen, but apparently Nancy couldn't keep that straight in her head.  So I went over and helped pack up all the stuff.  There was a lot of stuff.  My brother has a lot of weird, creepy stuff.  But a lot of cool stuff, too.  Judy and Jen and her sisters will go through it all and anything Jen doesn't want she'll give us the opportunity to decide if we want it or not. Which is more than Nancy would have.  I know, I need to be kind, and Nancy did have a stroke about 2 months ago.  It was a very tiring, emotional day.

There was drama regarding the moving truck, and more drama involving the tow dolly for Mike's car (Jen really wanted it), and lots of texts via a group text set up by my siblings.  It's more quiet now.

This morning there was a ceremony at Riverside Memorial that my dad and brothers and several of their kids were able to attend.  Daely recorded it and posted it in our Facebook group, Andersen Family Shenanigans.  It was really nice.  Dad got the flag from the coffin.  And now I'm sad again.  Time to work through the grief again.