When I last lived in Quincy, I used to run into her shopping quite often and always stopped and chat, and unlike with many relatives, running into her made my day. Her death is not a tragedy. If anyone gets to Heaven by faith, kind thoughts, or good works, she will be there, at the very least helping out. If there is no heavan, well, she deserved a good rest and many, many people will remember her fondly for many years to come.
The other piece of bad news is that one of my cousins, a first cousin once removed for those of you who know what that means, is in a coma tonight. The coma was induced to help prevent damage. He has multiple skull fractures, most in the face and was bleeding severely. They think (and hope and pray) that the bleeding is from the fractures and not his brain. The bleeding has stopped and they hope to bring him out of the coma tomorrow. He had been to the mall. He got a haircut and some Christmas presents and was on his way back home. He was driving a full sized pickup. He was the kind of person who would have that kind of vehicle because he would use it, not because it was cool or macho. There was a yellow sports car traveling in the opposite direction. The speculation was that it was racing another vehicle when the driver lost control. They think it was going about 120 mph. It rolled several times, became airborne perhaps when it hit the median, sailed over into the oncoming traffic lanes and landed on my cousin's truck. This is a tragedy. A young man, handsome and kind is clinging to life. We hope he will live. We hope he will eventually be healed and well again in mind, body, and spirit. We hope.