Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffC
Is that before, or after, you've drunk the contents?
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I may have to .... get this. I am part of the way through taking down one of the tall (mostly glass) cabinet doors so I can paint it. Of course, the phone rings. I take down the damn thing as quickly as possible, and answer the phone. It is one of my cousins ... who says "I thought your should know that Linna Pat (another cousin) was killed."
I ask "How did it happen?"
What follows is about ten minutes of her explaining to me how she found out about it.
I say, "I really don't give a crap about how you found out about it. I want to know WHAT HAPPENED!"
There follows five more minutes of her telling me why she was one of the first in the family to hear about it, and how sorry she is that I didn't hear about it sooner."
I pretty much shout into the phone, "Did you HEAR me when I said I DON'T CARE about orders of priority?? What the f*ck happened to Linna??"
Finally she tells me that Linna was visiting friends in New Jersey and was a passenger in a car where the driver had a heart attack and the car went through a four way stop. I gather this happened this last Thursday. I don't know if any other cars were involved. Just that the driver and my cousin died. I'm going to see if I can find any other information on the net.
Man ... there are times I wish I could just reach through the phone and bitch slap some of my family. They freaking can not cut to the chase. EVER. My mother was like that, all of my aunts and uncles (on my mother's side) are/were like that, and a good hunk of my cousins.
They tell you the house blew up, and when you ask them what happened, they lead with, "Well, you remember Mrs. Miller, who lived down the block when you were two? Oh, you remember, she had the little wiener dog that used to tear up your mother's lantana. That dog was so funny ... it used to get stuck under the fence. I wonder whatever happened to that dog?"
You think I'm kidding?? No .... pretty much not. It's a wonder I'm not crazier than I am.
I think I'm going to wait a few days before calling her parents. Word on the street is that my aunt is hysterical, and my uncle is in failing health anyway.
Not looking forward to any of this. There is a reason I went into pathology ... I have absolutely zero bedside manner. I am no good at the sympathetic parts .... unless it involves animals.
Well, it all sucks, although she was (I think) 58 or 59, so she had a lot more life than a lot of other people (but, I better make a mental note NOT to say that to her parents ... I don't think that will go over well).
Found the article ... it looks like no other cars were involved. That's a small mercy anyway.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/200..._in_scotc.html