My Cousin Meets His Maker

When I was around seven or eight years old, my family would visit my Uncle and Aunt. They had seven children but the ones I remember are the ones that were near my age. One boy cousin was closer to my brother's age and the other boy and I were the same age. The four of us would hang around together on those fun visits. My uncle lived on a farm that had a small lake on the property. I remember having fun on the lake. Later, as we grew older, they moved to Henderson and I remember pigs on their property. The smelly beasts were fun to watch, grunt and wallow in the mud.

As we grew into adulthood we lost track of each other and maybe we would see each other about once every ten years. Usually at a funeral or running into them at a restaurant. Their sister who was ten years older than me connected again when we were working on our genealogy. Our ancestors brought us closer together. A few years back I spoke to my cousin who was my age and he had plenty of stories to tell me. He told me that his Dad, my uncle, would tell him tales of our ancestors. The cousin around my brother's age passed away about fifteen years ago. Today I received a call from my cousin and she told me that on March 26, 2020, the cousin who was my age had passed away. He died of pneumonia and there was no funeral because of the coronavirus. How sad is that? He was buried and she told me no one was allowed to be with him or to have a service.

She thought he was in a rehab center but she now thinks it may have been in a hospice. Either way, he is now gone. I told her I would have attended his funeral and she said, "No one was allowed to be with him, not even his immediate family." That breaks my heart. Makes me wonder if he had the coronavirus and that is why he had been in quarantine for two weeks before he died. Who knows, it is just sad the way things are happening lately and scary as to how contagious it can be to anyone near anyone who has it. She did not have a lot of information and our conversation left me with questions.

Did he receive the Sacrament of Anointing the sick?
What was he thinking during his last hours. (His sister told me that he told her that when he got out of the hospital he was going to build duplexes instead of individual homes. In his profession of being a contractor he built many homes in northern Adams County.)
Did he know he was dying?
Did he understand why he couldn't have visitors?
Was it an easy death? I hope so, because I have been told that when the lungs stop functioning it is like drowning.

These are questions I will never know the answers, yet, even though I was not close to my cousins anymore, it still saddens me to know that my cousin is now gone. There are only two cousins left,  out of the seven siblings, and they are in their 80's and 90's. May God be with all of them, alive or gone, and those that are gone, may their souls rest in peace.

"I think about dying.

I've come to realize we

all die alone in one way

or another."

Richard Pryor