Memories Of Death From My Childhood.

   When I was younger, maybe around 9 years old, my next door neighbor's wife died from heat stroke on a very warm and humid day summer day. I remember the rescue squad coming to the house to pick her up. At that time it was a basic pick up and transfer to a hospital with not much immediate care.

   I never really knew their names until I was older, so I would just call them Mr. and Mrs. They were both very friendly and Mrs. would give me treats, and Mr. would always make sure some of the plums from his trees would make it on our side of the fence. He told me that they fell on our property so they were mine.

   I waited anxiously every Sunday afternoon when their grand children Tim and Judy would come over and I had someone to play with for a few hours. Mrs. always had a pressure cooker of chicken soup that she put on the porch and would take the jigglier off to let the steam escape. To this day that is the way I release the pressure from my cooker too.

   I remember sitting in my favorite tree later that day that Mrs. died,  having fun like young boys do, making a lot of noise. I could see Mr. sitting on the swing in his screen porch, just staring at the flower garden. He turned in my direction and yelled at me to be quiet. It was the first and only time he ever yelled at me and I didn't understand why, until today.

   This time of year is very hard for me as on this August 31st it will be one year since my sister Lynn passed away, and on September 1st it will be 44 years that my dad is gone. Just yesterday my wife and I received word that her classmate and friend died. We had just seen her at their class reunion 2 weeks prior.

   This weekend was suppose to be a quiet camping trip for my wife and I that we had canceled last year because of my sister's death. It didn't work out that way because of the many children close by in the campground. I now understand the reason that Mr. wanted some quiet time if only to reflect of the loss of a loved one.

   I also realize that too much alone time is not good either as spending time with my grandson this weekend as well as my cousin and her husband is a time to remember that life goes on and soon we will all be together again

   So Lynn and Dad, when you see John (Mr.) and Mary (Mrs.)Sentowski let them know, that although it took this long, I did learn a lesson that day, and that I still think of them often. I love you Lynn and Dad and will stop by to visit when we get back home.