I hate to keep thinking about death, but...

I'm not even going to try and count all of the people I know who've died this year. I will say that there have been at least 5 in the past 4 months, if that's any indication of how things have gone.
Someone once referred to death as "God just thinning the herd," which makes me think that someday I'm going to be standing here in the midst of a REALLY SMALL HERD!

This girl I went to school with, who I used to be friends with but haven't seen or heard from in about 15 years... her Brother died this week. I didn't know him well, but I do remember him from school. He was three years older and in my Sister's class at Strafford. Always seemed like a nice guy, and ran with the smart kids as I recall.

It just seems weird that people my age could be losing siblings, spouses and kids... Parents, I can understand because now that we're in our 40's, our parents are getting along in years. Several weeks ago I feared that one of my old friend's Son had gotten killed, because there was someone with the same name, near the same age that had died in a car wreck...luckily it wasn't him, although I still feel sorry for the family of the kid who died.

When I was in college, a guy I knew with the same name as mine, died in a fire. He lived in Seymour, Missouri and I lived in Strafford. People I hadn't heard from in years thought it might have been me who perished in the fire and that I might have moved to Seymour...anyway, the calls poured in like crazy... I even had one friend of my oldest Sister's (who is 13 years older than me) call, and she hadn't seen me since I was a kid! "Thank God you're alive!" she said. I was touched by that, because I couldn't believe she even remembered me, much less would take the time to check up on me!

When someone I know dies, I always have the best of intentions and think of sending a card, but sometimes I just never get around to it. Like when Rob died this past fall.... I meant to send a card, but somehow I never got around to it... why is that? Psychologically am I avoiding the whole "death" thing by not acknowledging it?

Who knows...all I know is that I've had a lot of people I know die this year!

David