My mom called yesterday afternoon to tell me that her youngest brother had died. His health had been declining, and he had reached the point where he didn’t know anyone and couldn’t make sense when he talked. She was the youngest child, and he was second youngest and, due to the way their birthdays fell, they went through school together. That means that three of the four girls and six of the eight boys (yes, 12 children) have now passed.
The funeral will be held in a town just south of Houston, Texas (over 600 miles away from where we live at the top end of Texas). Fortunately, they are having it on Monday, and mom was able to get the flights she needed to get there in time for the funeral and then fly back that evening. (Getting a weekend flight that has to go through Dallas on just a day’s notice is practically impossible.) She’ll fly into Hobby, and one of her nieces will meet her.
My dad cannot be left alone for more than 2 hours at a time, never mind the whole day, so I’ll be getting up at ye-gods o’clock in the morning (probably around 3:30), so I can get over there in time for her to drive to the airport (which is on the other side of town) and catch her 6 AM outbound flight. If her inbound flight is on time, it’ll be well after 10 o’clock when she gets back. It’ll be a long, sad day.
I have already gotten her set up for WiFi, so I can take my Kindle, and I’ll probably take my latest crochet project as well (making a set of 15 crocheted snowflake ornaments for CJ). I’ve finished 3 and almost finished a 4th, which leaves 11 more to go.
My mom’s birthday is this Sunday and last Friday, she’d decided she’d had it with that hulking behemoth of a TV of theirs (about 3 x 3 x 3 feet and 500 lbs worth of cathode ray tube). It had gotten to the point that you had to turn it on and off and on and off repeatedly for ten or fifteen minutes to get it to actually turn on. The day before, it had refused to turn on at all, so she and I went down to the same local store where she’d bought it and bought a new flat screen. (She likes that store because they deliver and set up the new one and haul the old one off at no charge, and they do their own repairs either on-site or in-store.) While she was there, she also bought a new refrigerator (she was having to kick the door shut on the old one to get it to seal properly). The old one was a two-door side by side (freezer on the left side, refrigerator on the right) and she wasn’t in love with the design. The new one has the freezer on top, and the refrigerator on the bottom. It’s the same height, but is narrower and deeper. It’s also black to match her “new” oven. It was her birthday present from her to her. It was also on sale.
Their house was new construction with new appliances when they moved into it in 1962. She’s already had to replace the original oven, and has already replaced at least one burner on the original electric cook top; recently she had another one go out. (Wouldn’t you know they’ve quit making burners that will fit it. I mean, she’s only had the thing for 50 years!). They brought a refrigerator with them when they moved, and she replaced it with the one she had to kick to get the door to shut.
This afternoon, I’m going to make her some biscuits and take them over so she can have them for Saturday morning breakfast. She loves home made biscuits, but dad always made them. The only kind of biscuits she makes are the ones that come out of a can. The recipe I have makes 5. I think I’ll double it and keep half of them. I have some left over chicken gravy in the fridge. Biscuits and gravy. Yes’m. That’ll work just fine.
The Owl Underground Archive II 
I’m so sorry for your loss.
So sorry to be late calling by and saying, ‘So Sorry your Uncle died.’ I expect your Mum was very affected, them being so close when growing up together and her being the youngest child too. I do hope her trip 600 miles went safely and without any hitches, such a long long way as well.
Jane
I’m sorry to hear about the death of your uncle – that’s a big family that he and your Mum came from ! My parents both came from families of 5 siblings. My Dad was the 4th to be born but the first to die – he was very close to one of his sisters and she took it particularly hard, as she’d looked after him when they were young ( their Mum wasn’t a great mother – or grandmother either), and her husband had died just 3 months earlier. Mum is the second of 5 , but it is the youngest who has died ( he was 62) – the rest of them are still going , though 2 of her brothers have skin cancer ( as did her grandma). She took it very hard when Uncle M died – he was the baby, and died of lung cancer.
Your parents have definitely had good use from their appliances – it shows that things were made to last in those days! I recently sold my old fridge. I bought it secondhand 5 years ago, and it was still in good working order, I just had no use for it after buying the fridge/freezer when we did the kitchen. I got almost as much for it as I paid for it – which pleased me very much.
That’s one of the sad things about becoming old – that the crowd around you starts to thin out. It’s all the more grievous when it’s the people dearest to you – family and close friends – who go.
There’s not much one can say that is of any use but for what it’s worth, please pass my condolences to your mother.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mom’s brother. It was so sad for my mom to watch friends and family slowly disappear from her life. Natural it is – easy, it’s not.
I had to smile about that 1962 house. We had a new construction house with new appliances in 1960, so I’m sure it was similar in many ways. The very word “cook top” brings to mind a particular image. I don’t suppose there was any avocado or harvest gold in your Mom’s house? It was ubiquitous, for sure. The very fact that I remember the names of the colors says all that needs to be said, I suppose.
I love refrigerators. Tell your Mom she did well, gifting herself. And tell her happy birthday, too.
Funny you should mention, the old oven and the cook top that came new with my parent’s home were both a dark tan/light brown, called “almond.” I, on the other hand, rent a duplex built in the 1970’s by two “old maid” sisters and their “old maid” friend. The sisters lived in “B”, and the friend lived in “A”. After the sisters died, the friend ended up owning the whole duplex, and rented out “B” while continuing to live in “A”. When she went to a nursing home, both units were rented. After she died, the duplex went to her nephew who lives in another town. The lady who has managed it since the friend had to go to assisted living is the sister of my former landlord’s ex-daughter-in-law, which is how I heard about it. Apparently it still has the original appliances from when the sisters lived there, because the stove and refrigerator are, in fact, harvest gold.