Missing my friends.

The past six months have really brought out memories both good and bad. Starting in the fall, I lost a good friend and ex-brother-in-law to diabetes and general neglect to his personal health. Then, late in he year, I lost a sister to Alzheimer's, which is a terrible way to go because of the stress and strain it places on family and patient alike. Recently, I lost another ex-brother-in-law and good friend to years of neglecting his own health and denial. This last week we lost another friend, the mother of our daughter-in-law to emphysema and COPD. Now, admittedly, some of these people were older than we are by quite a bit, but the fact is, in all but one instance, we lost them due to the denial that their personal habits were killing them and it got me to thinking that we humans are really not all that bright. I mean, we know that what we are doing is going to kill us, and yet we think we it only affects others. Duh! We have one more relative in late stage Alzheimer's and, unfortunately, no one has found an effective treatment or cure for that. I can only hope and pray that this is not setting a pattern for the rest of the year.