Saturday, January 07, 2006

Death of a cousin's husband

My first cousin's husband died a couple days ago. He was found dead in his truck with they ignition keys in his hand and left a clue that he was trying to call out on his cell phone. His dog was there in the truck with him. The poor little dog must have cried for hours. The authorities estimated that he had been dead about 12 hours when he was found.

He was a lineman. He put up telephone poles, which I suppose are electrical poles also. A year or so ago he went to Afghanistan to put up poles to reinstall their power. About a week before Christmas he was on the Gulf reinstalling power lines. He went out on the balcony where he was staying at and the balcony collapsed with him and he fell a number of levels. Apparently no bones were broken, but he still had quiet a jolt and was out on injured-on-job duty when he died.

He was cremated.

A memorial service was given. A co-worker, ex-father-in-law, and a brother stood up and talked about the times they had with the deceased. They didn't paint him to be an innocent do-gooder. They told the truth, he was always getting into trouble and lived for the moment. He was full of life. There was not a dry eye in the room. His dog who was him when he died was at the memorial also, and also cried, or whined.

I have only met him only twice, ironically, each time at the same funeral home of his memorial service. Both times he came off to me as someone with nervous energy or hyper.

I always bring my camera along with me at places where my extended family might be, for a photo opportunity, if possible. At my cousin's mother's funeral last year I asked all the family to gather for a group photo of all my uncle and aunts children and grandchilden... which amounted to a big group, maybe between 18 and 20 people. Before going to the service today I pulled up that group picture in my computer and there was the deceased, standing up front, in front of everyone, who was politely giving me the "cheese" smile - all but him - he had his arms crossed and a dumb founded look on his face, like he was trying to figure what my angle was.

May he finally rest.

3 comments:

kenju said...

Eddie, thanks for the visit; I am glad the puns made you laugh.

The poor little dog must have been frantic about his owner. When my uncle died of a heart attack while shoveling snow, he lay in a ditch for an hour before he was discovered. His dog (at home, 1/2 mile away) began to howl and did so for 3 days. My aunt had to put my uncle's clothing on the floor for the dog to smell and he lay down on the pile of clothes and quit howling. It was so sad.

Carolyn said...

Hi Eddie, I'm so sorry to hear about this. He certainly sounded like what I call "characters" in my family. It also sounds like he will be missed.

I hope there is someone to care for his doggie.

Carolyn said...

By the way, thank you so much for your nice words about my blog, and my post about my dad's death.

And I've heard cinnamon is good for you, also ginger root tea is great for nausea.