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deaths in the family
Nov. 11th, 2021 06:06 amI got voicemail from my paternal cousin M – yeah, she's one of the eldest of my generation – that her mother, Aunt HJ, passed away on Tuesday at the age of ninety. That was just a week after I'd called Aunt HJ for her birthday. I'm not the angel of death, am I?
HJ was the eldest of my father's siblings, and she kind of acted like it, but in a good way. She married a dude who figured out he was gay, and raised three children more or less on her own in the era when that was just starting to be common. She learned to program in the '70s (?) and got a job with the state of Illinois, which demoted her and many colleagues en masse to save money once. Aunt HJ sued without a lawyer and won. Through it all she was the normal, unassuming, decent person that her mother and namesake was, only with few if any nasty geezer attitudes.
Of course my mother found something to dislike about her – I forget what – because that's what my motherdid does with everyone. Seeing as how my family was in Florida, HJ was the geographically furthest away of the aunts & uncles, so we hardly ever saw her. That's a damn shame.
Oh, and do you remember when my phone couldn't read its SIM card? Well, it happened again right after I texted about HJ to the United Sister Front. I bopped on down to my cell carrier's store right after work, and they couldn't get it to work, so I've got a new handset that should be delivered to me tomorrow.
I'll be spending much of tomorrow, in the best-case scenario, restoring and re-authenticating for hours. Not having a phone means I can't authenticate into some things I need for work. I sure hope I can get it done in time for the weekend because I've got plans with the Tickler and the Coven on Friday and K on Saturday. I have, of course, notified them of my technologically reduced circumstances through other means.
Until I get the new phone and set it up I'll be living the way HJ & the rest of my father's family undoubtedly did as a child on trading posts on the Navajo reservation. I don't yet find the irony humorous.
HJ was the eldest of my father's siblings, and she kind of acted like it, but in a good way. She married a dude who figured out he was gay, and raised three children more or less on her own in the era when that was just starting to be common. She learned to program in the '70s (?) and got a job with the state of Illinois, which demoted her and many colleagues en masse to save money once. Aunt HJ sued without a lawyer and won. Through it all she was the normal, unassuming, decent person that her mother and namesake was, only with few if any nasty geezer attitudes.
Of course my mother found something to dislike about her – I forget what – because that's what my mother
Oh, and do you remember when my phone couldn't read its SIM card? Well, it happened again right after I texted about HJ to the United Sister Front. I bopped on down to my cell carrier's store right after work, and they couldn't get it to work, so I've got a new handset that should be delivered to me tomorrow.
I'll be spending much of tomorrow, in the best-case scenario, restoring and re-authenticating for hours. Not having a phone means I can't authenticate into some things I need for work. I sure hope I can get it done in time for the weekend because I've got plans with the Tickler and the Coven on Friday and K on Saturday. I have, of course, notified them of my technologically reduced circumstances through other means.
Until I get the new phone and set it up I'll be living the way HJ & the rest of my father's family undoubtedly did as a child on trading posts on the Navajo reservation. I don't yet find the irony humorous.
