Day 78 -- Dying Past

Home from my holiday travels.  I'm always happy to return to my hometown, but each visit becomes a reminder that I have less and less in common with the places of my youth. And the connections became fewer w/ this visit as two women who I've known all my life passed away.  It didn't help matters when my dad announced that he'd be the third.  It's always been an "old wive's tale" that death comes in threes.  He's 86, and he's ready to go.  He's lonely.  The two-year anniversary of Mom's passing is quickly approaching, and I think he has it in his mind that he would only have to live two years after her death.    It's hard to be engaged in living when there's so much death, illness, homelessness, and poverty.  Perhaps getting lost in the superficiality of Christmas will cheer me...