Such happiness and sadness all at once

What an amazing weekend!

My sister from NC shows up, just walking down the road in front of our house as if she owned the town. I wasn't going to see her until Thanksgiving, she reminded me last week when we talked. She's such a liar, and a darn good sneak. This is the second time in a year that she's lied to me, in order to glean all the information she can about what's going on with the family reunions and then flown up, and with the help of our ever-ready cousin Brian, surprised us with her presence. Last time she came in a futon box - sealed up and everything. This time, she was walking past like the dozen or so other people in the neighborhood. She's crazy!

To add to the excitement, Evan's fiance, Emily, also showed up - surprising all of us, again with the assistance of Brian.

We had a fabulous family reunion with 72 people in attendance yesterday at the Francesville Park. About half of them, my dad noticed, were under 4 feet tall. My aunt Judy was offended by that statement, but it was true, most of them children, with the except of Judy and one or two other women.

Mom flew out to AZ today to see Katie. We're all pretty jealous and sad that we'll not see her till August or longer. Ev might not see her until his wedding in November.

The most heartbreaking thing happened this weekend, clouding everything with an emptiness. Jeffery - my cat of 18 years - died on Sunday morning. He'd been starving himself, or not able to eat, for weeks. He was nothing but a pile of bones with one very swollen and disfigured back foot. He couldn't see very well; he'd turn to the wall or the corner or anywhere away from you when you'd offer him canned cat food (a special treat). His last few months have been awful - every movement he made was strained and took every ounce of energy the poor guy had. Makes me cry just thinking about it.

I couldn't bear the thought of him living in pain, the cause of many tears. But I couldn't bear the idea of "euthanizing" or "killing" him, either - which were the only other options my mom could find. Perhaps I've always put a little too much personality and humanity into my cats, but there was no way I could justify taking his life even when I didn't want to watch him suffer. Is there an answer to this dilemma? How do people justify turning off machines and....oh I don't know. It's death and I don't handle it well at all.