(#5191) The king is dead long live the king

      And so it goes with each generation leading the way for all of us. All my parents are now gone so what is left are the children they bore. It was unthinkable when my paternal father Jim died when I was 6 years old. I couldn't fathom that occurrence at that age but I was in shock and desperately lonely for several months. But as a child I was able to move on and regain focus on my own life however traumatic the event of losing my father. It was about a year later that my mother remarried and had more than 60 years of marriage with Bill. I consider Bill my father because he was actually in my life for the vast majority of it.
     When my mother Joanne died last year I was of an age where the shock of it was minimal. I don't think I have yet fully come to terms with her passing but I do miss her and appreciate the time I got to have with a loving strong woman like her. Last night when Bill passed it was almost conceivable since the time last October when mom passed dad has been like a shell of himself. He had been afflicted with diabetes and this year it caught up to him. An infection that could not be abated had taken over his primary functions to the point where there was no real hope of defeating it. With mom passing, dad sort of lost his way and never found himself again.
     The bond those two shared was so long and deep that it wasn't difficult to understand that the one wouldn't live long without the other. So it is now with the offspring of those two that are now the heads of many families. 8 children were raised by Bill and Joanne and their families which are numerous and diverse. It is up to us to be the ones who carry the wisdom and understanding going forward so as to share our lives in ways that round out the offspring of us. A new generation of family leaders is now upon us and what we do with that is our responsibility to steward.