I Almost See Dead People
I grew up in a small city. I lived in this city from about 11 yrs old to my adulthood and my cousins used to live steps away from us. So, my sister and my cousins all grew up together. I was the oldest. I was 3 yrs older than my sister, 6 and 9 years older than my cousins. At that time my mom had 2 girls and my aunt had 2 boys. So, we spent a lot of time together especially over the summer. We would do the typical kid things like ride our bikes, go to the park, play baseball and basketball and go to a nearby creak or go swimming sometimes. Sometimes my aunt used to get baseball tickets to an A's game and we would all go there and watch the game and in the 7th inning try to sneak to better seats closer to the field. Sometimes we caught and most times we didn't. We always wanted to catch a foul ball but none of us ever did. On Sundays, some Sundays, we would all walk to church together. Just the cousins and my sister. We had a plan of not putting all the money in the collection plate that our parents gave us and we would keep about a dollar, back then a dollar went a long way, and right before church was over we would leave and go to Mac Donald's which wasn't far away from our house. We would have lunch and then go back home.
We spent many years together and during that time my mom had another baby, my brother and they got a little brother too. All of were together so much to this day people still think that we are all brothers and sisters. So, up until about ten or eleven years ago we were all still close. We spent holidays together at the grandparents house still and we had the random family dinners there. By the time we were in our 20's my sister and one of my cousins had kids already. My sister had 2 and my cousin had one and one on the way. But, we remained close.
Then the day came when both grandparents, the glue of the family, passed away, a year apart. This was in the early 2000's. There was a lot of drama after they passed, as usual, when someone passes then sometimes in some families, people get greedy and get some dumb sense of entitlement because of some made up reason they have in their head and the more the person who passed had the more they want. Although, I didn't think I was entitled to a thing and really didn't care one way or another if I got anything. The most important thing in my mind was that they were not here and that my son would never really know them. He was born the same year my step grandfather passed and was a year old when my grandmother passed. That was the thing that hurt me the most besides them passing that my son would never get to know them to have any family dinners with them or anything else.
So, my cousins and myself fell out of touch with each other which was sort of dumb since we all live about 20-30 minutes away from each other. We never call each other and from time to time when we run into each other on the streets in random encounters we say hello and basically keep going.
Then my uncle, my mom's brother, who calls every day to check on my mom, called the other day and he said he got the strangest call. He said that one of the cousins called. I was as much surprised as he was. Considering he never really talks to them either. But, when he told me what the conversation was I was more then surprised. He said that my cousin started talking about dead people like they were alive. My uncle was shocked too. He knows that my cousin knows that these people aren't alive anymore they passed away many, many years ago but he was asking about them like they were alive and well. My uncle didn't know what to make of all of that and reminded him that these people were not alive and well they had passed away several years ago.
Now, I know that dementia runs in the family as my grandmother had it and so does my mom. But, my cousin just turned 50 this past June and I was thinking is he too young to have it? Is he getting it? Or is something else wrong with him? My uncle joked that he must have been smoking some good stuff. I don't know what is going on with him but that was the weirdest conversation that I have heard of us this year. I can only hope that it was a momentarily memory loss and he's not sick.
We spent many years together and during that time my mom had another baby, my brother and they got a little brother too. All of were together so much to this day people still think that we are all brothers and sisters. So, up until about ten or eleven years ago we were all still close. We spent holidays together at the grandparents house still and we had the random family dinners there. By the time we were in our 20's my sister and one of my cousins had kids already. My sister had 2 and my cousin had one and one on the way. But, we remained close.
Then the day came when both grandparents, the glue of the family, passed away, a year apart. This was in the early 2000's. There was a lot of drama after they passed, as usual, when someone passes then sometimes in some families, people get greedy and get some dumb sense of entitlement because of some made up reason they have in their head and the more the person who passed had the more they want. Although, I didn't think I was entitled to a thing and really didn't care one way or another if I got anything. The most important thing in my mind was that they were not here and that my son would never really know them. He was born the same year my step grandfather passed and was a year old when my grandmother passed. That was the thing that hurt me the most besides them passing that my son would never get to know them to have any family dinners with them or anything else.
So, my cousins and myself fell out of touch with each other which was sort of dumb since we all live about 20-30 minutes away from each other. We never call each other and from time to time when we run into each other on the streets in random encounters we say hello and basically keep going.
Then my uncle, my mom's brother, who calls every day to check on my mom, called the other day and he said he got the strangest call. He said that one of the cousins called. I was as much surprised as he was. Considering he never really talks to them either. But, when he told me what the conversation was I was more then surprised. He said that my cousin started talking about dead people like they were alive. My uncle was shocked too. He knows that my cousin knows that these people aren't alive anymore they passed away many, many years ago but he was asking about them like they were alive and well. My uncle didn't know what to make of all of that and reminded him that these people were not alive and well they had passed away several years ago.
Now, I know that dementia runs in the family as my grandmother had it and so does my mom. But, my cousin just turned 50 this past June and I was thinking is he too young to have it? Is he getting it? Or is something else wrong with him? My uncle joked that he must have been smoking some good stuff. I don't know what is going on with him but that was the weirdest conversation that I have heard of us this year. I can only hope that it was a momentarily memory loss and he's not sick.
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