Another Domino Has Fallen

On my last post of 2017, I wrote:

2017 has been one of the most exciting, reward, and exceptional years of my life. The highlights included going on safari in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan India and getting within twenty feet of a Bengal tiger, cooking a meal for monks in a remote monastery in northern Thailand and then receiving their blessings, riding a camel for the first time, and also an elephant for the tenth time, walking five hundred and fifty miles across northern Spain on a spiritual pilgrimage, working to get my latest novel ready for publication by Dreamspinner Press, attended three wedding of nieces and nephews, and the lost three beloved friends.

It was a year of great blessings and greater heartache. Those three deaths came very close together at the end of the year. They hit us like dominos, before we could recover from the one, another hit, and another. Heartrending grief spread over a few dark months.

This morning I received news that my beloved brother-in-law, Ross, passed in the night. He had suffered Alzheimer’s disease, and had been slowly deteriorating in a nursing home these last five years. His passing is both heartbreaking and a blessing. A blessing because his quality of life in that nursing home was dreadful. He hated it, but he required constant care, which he couldn’t get at home. A heartbreak because he was a loving soul who put everyone else’s needs above his own. I greatly admired his compassionate, giving spirit.

I will miss you dearly, Brother.