Handle with Care

I don't know how to write about this without sounding totally morbid .. but I am pretty sure my neighbour died last night. Something woke me up around 1 am and I looked out the window to see my dad shovelling the walks and an ambulance across the street. It all seemed so surreal, one minute I was sure it was an ambulance, the next a moving truck, the next not even positive that I had seen a vehicle at all, so I thought that maybe it was just a dream. But when I asked my mom this morning if I had really seen my dad out shovelling the walks in the wee hours she confirmed my initial suspicions. And it makes me a little sad, even though we had just received the news that his cancer was spreading. I lived across the street from him for almost my entire life. It goes without saying that my thoughts are with his family today. As well as with my "big sister" P's family because they have been struggling with the illness of her oldest son since mid-January and no matter what the outcome their lives are forever changed by the events of the last couple of months. It's like whatJo said the other day: Life is fragile and unpredictable.