No grasshopper, my mother in law has been fighting cancer since May of 2016. That has taken huge amounts of my time and even more from my wife. Before that, in July 2015 I had a cousin who was 4 days from turning 49 drop dead. He had a widow maker. Had one kid just out of college, one in college, one ready to start college and two in HS. I was told he was a regional manager for Target, but at the funeral they said he was the food/dairy Vice President which meant he was over all that. It was barely making money when took it over. He turned a very big profit with it. There were three other VP's for other parts of Target. One of those four guys would be the next president of Target, or what ever that title was...CEO maybe...I forget the nomenclature. Pretty sad really.
Less than two weeks later my 63 year old buddy in New Mexico had a heart attack and died. I went down to the ABQ to help his wife sell his race car and trailer and all the crap. Then his wife was going to buy a travel trailer and a truck to pull it with and come live on our property in the spring and summer, the snowbird to either Vegas or Phoenix with her kids. By Christmas of 2015 she had the truck and trailer. She wasn't sure how to drive them. So I said when the snow stops flying I'll fly down there, help load up your stuff and bring you back and teach you how to hook and unhook the truck, how to back up correctly and all that crap. I'd drive the tough parts of the drive and let her do the rest.
On May 7th 2016 the wife and I called her and said the weather is good, let's do this. So we picked the first Sunday in June to fly down to the ABQ and bring her back. We set aside 10 days total for the trip so we could stop and see all the cool sights there are on that drive. My wife, son and I were going to fly down and make it a vacation becuase Carolyn raised 2 kids that were like her grand kids from their birth. A boy and girl. The boy was 12 and the girl was 8.
So we don't here from her and it's Wednesday. I told the wife to call her and see what's going on, as we need to confirm our schedule. My wife called her on Thursday at about 11:15 am. Carolyn was on the phone with another friend and they were planning to take the kids to the zoo the next day. The other gal had three kids. Carolyn let my wife's call go to voice mail. Within 3 minutes, the 12 year old boy walked up behind his grandmother (she was outside on the patio on the phone) and he walked up and shot Carolyn right smack in the back of the head.
The paramedics didn't see an exit or entry wound so they though she had a stroke, fell forward and busted up her nose and bled out.
The facts were the boy used a .22 pistol. The angle he shot at was uphill. He was slightly lower than her. The bullett entered just under her skull cap, evidently at the perfect angle so he hair covered up the hole. There was no exit would as the bullet basically bounced around her brain cavity and essentially scrambled her brain. She was dead when she hit the ground.
The boy was put into a juvenile home. Last I heard he hasn't spoken a word since they read him his rights and he said he wanted a lawyer. Not a single word. He may get out at 16, we are hoping for 18. He will walk out with his record expunged. Pisses me off.
A week and a half later we found out the M.I.L. had cancer. She just finished up the last of the chemo right after the first of the year so things are getting better.
Hopefully 2018 goes along a lot smoother than 2015-2017. Maybe we can get back to our normal at least.