Sad News

My Cousin Gundega passes away.

I received the news of my cousin Gundega's death last night via email.  I knew that her days were numbered because of a sudden and fatal onset of the breast cancer she had been fighting these past few years.  Earlier this year she had just gotten her first email address; and so She and I had been exchanging emails full of advice for Jenny and her pregnancy.  I had received a snail mail letter from Gundega last night with ominous closing about us probably not being able to see her next year. 

Gundega died before her time.  Her mother Dzidra is still alive.  Actually, all Dzidra's sisters and brothers are still alive including my mother.  Gundega had given Jenny and I lots of advice about the pregnancy including where to have the birth.  That Gundega will not receive the news of what will be the successful birth of Tony devastates me.

Gundega was the most interesting person in our family.  She traveled the world.  It was just in September of last year that she was in Paris.  She had gone all over North America snow boarding.  Quite a sight she was when all the others who were the slopes were twenty or thirty years younger than her.  She had a stint of working for a fur company in the far north of Canada.  She really marched to the beat of her own drummer.  She worked all her life as a temp nurse working evenings and weekends so she could go on her trips...

A flood of memories comes back to me.