Day 236 -- Loss of a Cousin

By cousin Bill has been suffering from Alzheimers for several years, and tonight at about 11:15 he succumbed to it with his wife and children there with him.  He is the first of the cousins to go, and he was the oldest but unlike the other deaths in the family this year, he was of my generation and that makes it seem different.  I am so thankful to his wife for bringing him down to Texas this year to see Dad, while they both were able to visit.  They unabashedly showed their love of each other in a somewhat childlike innocence that was so precious to witness.  While he and his family live so far from the rest of the family, I consider it a blessing that we continue to love and think of each other as though they lived in the town next door.  Another good man has left our earthly family, and he and his family will be remembered with love by all of us.