50th

Lisa wrote a series of blog posts about attending her parents' 50th anniversary celebration. My parents had theirs over a decade ago. It was a nice celebration, just of immediate family, though.

There were reasons for that. Chief among them is that one of my cousins, an exceptional child to the eyes of her mother, had been consuming large amounts of drugs for decades and had, by past self-absorbed conduct, made a circus of other family celebrations. As the story was told, one of my other cousins went to my father, who was by then the family patriarch, and said something like: "I am going to shoot her the next time that I see her, so you might want to consider not inviting either her or me to the next family function."

It was a nice celebration. Papa was tired, more than usual. He said that he and my brother were starting a new enterprise and that he was tired from that. We purchased his favorite brand of vodka for him, as the resort was nominally a "dry" one, and he was pleased by that. His obvious exhaustion, though was very noticeable to those of us who had not seen him in some time.

Less than two months following the celebration, Father finally went to see a doctor. The diagnosis was cancer, most likely from the smoking of cigarettes that he had begun in the Army during the War and then for many years after that. There was chemical therapy and radiation therapy, all of which only served to delay the inevitable. He and Mother did mark their 51st anniversary, but by then he was deteriorating rapidly and he did not last for very much longer.

If there is a point to this tale, it is this: Enjoy the presence of your beloved family members when the opportunity is presented. You may not have a chance again.