IT REALLY WASN’T THAT SAD

Friday 5, 2025

I went to a family funeral today.  My uncle passed away.  The amazing thing was, it wasn't very sad.  Yes.  He will be missed.  Even my mom who is his sister didn't really shed many tears.  This may sound somewhat cold, but the fact is no-one, not even his children cried. 

It is not that he wasn't loved.  I honestly believe it is how he looked at life.  His favorite thing to say was, “Let it go.”

“Just let all that go,” was his motto when times got hard.

It was a reunion of family.  A time to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives.  Unfortunately, funerals have been the main event to get the family together these days.  

It was somewhat surreal seeing cousins I used to play games with as a kid with children in their twenties and above.  What hit me even more was all the gray hair associated with Gen X. 

We were  once the youngest of the family.  Now we are becoming the elders.  It did take a moment to get over the shock of seeing the youngest cousin of my generation with almost a completely fully head of gray hair.  This is the little girl that I used to play with because no one wanted her on their teams because she was too young to keep up.

Now she has two adult men that she calls sons and a loving husband.

Faces look exactly the same.  A few pounds may have been added or lost, but the common theme that was evident was the silver in our hair.  

It served as a wake up call that aging and yes death is inevitable.  But it also put me more at ease as to why I should not see my graying hair as a burden, an omen of a geriatric future, or something to try to cover up and hide (although an occasional coloring may be in the books.)

It was a special moment to cherish the relationships that I have and the opportunity to build new ones with newer family members.

So, no. This was not a sad occasion.  It was a very special time.