A Time to Laugh, A Time to Cry

This weekend was a very busy, emotional weekend. My Uncle Tony passed away on Thursday after a long time of being sick. He was 71 years old. He was my godfather as well. We spent a lot of time with my Aunt Diana and my cousins over the past several days. Two of those days of which we made five, yes count them, five, photo boards of pictures of Uncle Tony from when he was a small boy until just recently. There we tears shed while we were looking at gobs and gobs and gobs of photos. They were tears of sadness and tears from laughter. Gina, Celeste, Aunt Diana and I laughed until we cried more than once. Looking at the old pictures where the funniest. The ones of the boys...Celeste thought they were having an identity crisis...some of them looked a bit feminine. Then there was her husband Jack with him "man perm", and the one of Anthony with "man boobs". The best one was of Anthony's birthday when he turned either 5 or 6 and we couldn't figure out who the other kid was in the picture. Well, it turned out to be me! My parents always had my hair really short, and I couldn't even tell myself in the picture. This long process helped me to make the decision that I do not want photo boards at my funeral. Looking at the old pictures and reminiscing was great, but I don't want anyone to have to do a collage of my life.

So, things will get back to normal for my family soon, Uncle Tony will be missed a lot, but he is in such a better place. And some day all of us will meet again. So in the mean time, wake up in the morning with no regrets, love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

Until next time...