Sorrow

Is getting weird it seems as if death is working overtime right now along the Wasatch front. A friend of mine recently lost a child like friend or a friend of one of her kids that was always there and felt like a child of hers but he overdosed last week. I got word that my aunt Elaine has been admitted to hospice at one of the long-term care facilities in the area and it is just now a matter of time before she passes. This morning when I called the ramrod for a program I am a member of to find out where our meeting was,  I was informed that the leader of this group, the person I've known for 30 years, as long as I've been in Utah, had passed. For me this was

 a lot to contemplate. The lad who overdosed I really did not know except through my friend. So I'm not too invested with Brandon though he seem like a good person I wish he had a chance to get past his youngness. My aunt is in her 90s and my friend Barbara who passed was 89. Two grand old ladies  I will dearly miss.

Barbara was a legend. She was an Army nurse during the Korean conflict it was during this time she contracted polio leaving her paraplegic. People in wheelchairs in the 50s were rare but they began to become more visible because the polio epidemic. Barbara survived in Salt Lake pretty well however in the 80s Barbara became involved with independent living movement. Barbara became radicalized and she never looked back. I met her around 1984. I've just been employed with the local Independent living center and she was on the Board of Directors. It took a while for Barbara to become radicalized Barbara looked like your grandmother or relief society president a benevolent leader of the local ecclesiastical women's organization. Whereas she might've looked benevolent and she was a great and wonderful grandmother she is also radically committed to the rights of people with disabilities and other populations disenfranchised from the main population of our community here in Utah. Barbara was committed to making the public transit system accessible, wheelchair accessible housing more available to people who needed housing. Barbara was also active on the national front for accessible transportation. As recent as a few months ago Barbara was in Washington DC protesting for one thing or another to do with disability. As a rule she went to protests twice a year. Barbara was a national icon in the disability rights movement. Barbara will be missed.

Death is a natural part of life, except that, kind of. It's weird to think of these people gone to somewhere else. I will miss my aunt Elaine and she finally passes in the not-too-distant future. She has been frail for the past 10 years and I'm quite frankly surprised she's made it this long. We were fairly close in a distant sort of way. I loved who she was and how she loved me. Aunt Elaine accepted me as I was and always appreciate that consideration. But aunt Elaine is tired and she desperately misses uncle Jess and wants to get back to him as soon as she can shuffle off this mortal coil.

There is too much death right now I will be glad when this time passes.