I got some really sad news last night

Hi Michael,

This is a sad tale.

It brings to mind an extraordinary set of circumstances from last year that began with the death of the birth mother of my wife. She was 93 and had Alzheimers.

I say birth mother as my wife was put up for adoption at birth as her birth mother was divorced and did not think she could care for her and her other two children.

Luckily my wife was re-united with her birth mother around 26 yeas ago, but she was never made known to her brother and sister.

We saw the death notice in the paper and my wife decided to ring her brother, as her birth mother had always said that she would leave a note to her children, telling them about my wife.

Probably because of the Alzheimers, that note didn't exist and the brother was knocked off his feet to learn he had another sister. His other sister, who had flown from interstate for the funeral, also could not believe it. They did a lot of digging for information and luckily found a record of us in the birth mother's things and invited us to get together before the funeral.

Everything went really well and the similarities between people who had never met were extraordinary. The brother had a son with the same given name as our son and who worked in the same profession. The sister was married to a guy in the I.T. industry, in which I have worked for over 20 years and so on and so on. And I saw proof that nature won over in this case, as my wife is nothing like her adoptive parents and very much like her blood family.

So from a death, an expanded family group has developed and everyone is happy about it. My children never had aunts or cousins before, my wife now had a brother and sister and I had in-laws. And the great thing is that they are all nice people.

This in no ways diminishes the sadness of the event that Michael has described, but I thought it might bring some happiness to some of you.

Best Wishes,

I just heard about this story today, such a sad situation. Very sorry, my heart goes out to you, your friend and his family.

Michael,

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope your friend is doing ok after this ordeal.

My mother seems to be getting alzheimers, and I just found out yesterday that an aunt has alzheimers. Both are probably close to 80. Man, somebody needs to get on this. There should NOT be so many around with alzheimers, so the obvious implication is it is environmental(food, water, air, etc...).

I'm almost happy I split my lip earlier, because there was apparently no indication of alzheimers yet at least. But alzheimers is degenerative and more likely to happen over time. I don't think 70 year olds get it because they are 70 years old, and suddenly get it, but because they have lived for 70 years to get enough damage that it shows up. Some even get it in their 40s. Again though, they believe that starts more in the mid 30s.

Steve

Michael, thanks for sharing a very sad but so romantic story. Man, it is one for the books.

Sorry for your loss.

Thank God they went together - what a blessing - imagine what the survivor would be feeling without their best friend.

Imagine that the last thing the old guy did on this earth was for her. He lived and died for her.

Wow. It is just astounding. She was so blessed both in life and death.



I feel like crying right now and didn't even know them.

So sorry to hear about your loss... bummer. So sad....SVH Will pray for the family!

This is really a very sad story. I am sorry for your loss, I know how it feels to lose someone that is close to you. I feel sorry for your friend too. My thoughts and prayers are with you and the whole family.

Michael, you're a dickhead - but you're our dickhead and I hate to see ya hurting, buddy. My sincerest sympathy to you and your friend and his surviving family.

They lived together and transcended "death do us part" - they crossed the divide into eternity together..........and you shall all meet again....
But don't be in a hurry - they will be patient.

Wow, what an extremely bitter-sweet ending. It's got to be very hard to lose two at the same time. But there must be at least a little consolation in knowing that they're still together. They've managed to bypass the age old fear that every aging couple has. If my wife goes first, it will be very hard on me - and vice versa.

Thanks for sharing this. I pray that you'll find increasing peace in the days ahead.

it's all the news in the UK today. Saying it's a much bigger problem than people believe it to be...I guess we are now lving longer so it's going to become a bigger problem. Is there anythign we can do to lesson the odds?

Steve...it's been around forever but back in the cave man days we all died well before this ever became a problem (mid 30s was old age then) as our bodies alst longer 70+..we now start seeing the mind/brain ages badly in some cases....to say it is only been around since 1906.......LOL

are you kidding me? They both die a slow death in the freezing cold (who knows how muh pain and how long it took) and it's ROMANTIC? I guess you beleived the Titanic was a love story?

Hello Michael, My sympathies to the Family & of course you, Alzheimers is such a cruel condition, in one way it is a sad & beautiful story, they lived & died together,may they rest in peace. nickrees