Important Family Time

In the last few days, Jack and I have been able to spend some important time with family.
Last week, Mike, Jack's brother, was hospitalized in pretty serious condition. Things were not looking good and it was pretty scary for everyone, especially so for his wife Sue and their two kids Lauren and Brendan. I am glad to report that Mike's condition has stabilized, as of this weekend. Mike was heavy on my mind when I sat down to post here on Thursday, but I just didn't know what to say...so instead, I wrote about the fire alarm. Displacement I guess. Earlier Thursday evening, I had gone with Jack to visit Mike and we got to spend a little time with Mike but even more time with Sue, Lauren and Brendan. I am just so impressed by them and how well they are handling the stress. Sue has been a total rock and awesome at keeping lines of communication open. Lauren and Brendan are such good kids and so mature, too. We were able to talk about lots of important things that are not always easy to talk about, including feelings about death and loss. I was thankful to have had that time together.
Also heavy on my mind is Dane. It was six years ago this coming Friday, February 25th, that my 23 year old nephew Dane collapsed and died at work, the victim of a fatal cardiac arrhythmia. Regular readers of my blog  know that Dane's death has had a huge impact on my life and that is one of the reasons I have to write about it all of the time. I am still processing it. Any way, this past Saturday we had made plans to have Kjell (Dane's brother/my nephew) over for pizza, champagne and a sleepover. Wayne, Kjell, Dane and Arne had many sleepovers together over the years and it was time for another one. It was just going to be Wayne and Kjell and then Saturday afternoon, Arne, Beth and the girls called to see if they could stop by and visit for a while. I called Jenny and Sue to see if they wanted to come spur of the moment, but it wasn't working for them. That's when Sue reminded me of the spontaneous get-together we had had at our house on Feb 19th, 2005. My mom, Sue, Jenny, and Kjell came for dinner and when Dane heard we were getting together, he came straight to our house on his way back from visiting friends in Iowa. It was such a fun night and it turned out to be the last time the rest of the family saw Dane alive. I was glad Sue reminded us of that; it was all the more reason to be together as a family. This February 19th was an awesome night, too, and as Kjell said the next morning, we experienced the whole range of emotions (me especially!). Kjell, Wayne and I ended up staying up until 3:30 am! It took me all of Sunday to recover :).
I am so thankful for the people in my family, both sides, and love being with them.