One of my daily rituals is to look through the Time Machine widget at the bottom of this page: it combs through all 7,000+ posts here at MTS and finds the ones published on today’s date. Twelve years ago today, we threw a surprise birthday party for Nana, who was turning seventy.

We invited some friends but mainly family to the occasion, and since both of Nana’s brothers had passed years before, it was mainly from Papa’s side of the family. Three of his four sisters came. We had a cookout and some cake, then we took the Boy on a train ride in the park we were at. The family stood by the fenced-off track and waved at us as we passed. Of the five that were there waving, four have passed away. Of the other guests, three more have passed since then.

Twelve years is not a terribly long time, and yet six of our guests have passed in that time. That’s one every two years. That’s too many too quickly, but it’s to be expected. It just surprises everyone, I suspect, when it starts happening to those around them.