My Uncle is Dying

I just heard from my mom and my uncle (the husband of her sister who died about 18 mos ago) is on death's door. He's got a very bad case of emphysema (yes, he was a serious smoker) and has been in and out of the hospital a lot of late. Last night/this morning he went back in and has refused to be put on a ventilator. I don't blame him. Hopefully he can hang on until his youngest daughter can get there from 200 miles away (his other three kids live nearby) and then get a big ol' dose of sedatives so he doesn't know it when he suffocates.

He was one of the original executives with a cable company back in the 70s...back when only people who couldn't get TV reception had cable TV. This led him to live in some backwater places in the south (the first region in the country to get cable), but he eventually headed up his company's negotiations in England and Japan.

I remember as a kid (I must have been about 12) we had a family get together out here and someone decided that we should go deep water fishing. So, we packed up a ton of sandwiches and headed to the port to catch our boat. We got horribly lost in the port complex and my uncle's driving through ruts and over railroad tracks, etc. Someone expressed concern for the car's well being, to which my uncle replied, "Eh, screw it, it's a rental." I use that expression to this day.

I spoke with him last week after the Eagles made the playoffs (he almost bit my head off when I called the week before while the game was in the last few minutes against the Redskins). He could barely put two sentences together before being out of breath. I'm glad that we had a chance to talk then, especially since he was in a good mood. I'm afraid that will be the last time I'll have the opportunity.