Sad News

Yesterday my cousin, Doug, age 67, died suddenly of a heart attack. He has been struggling with his health for years, but this was very unexpected. In fact yesterday before we heard the news my mom and I were talking about the fact that he had been having a hard time recovering from the flu.
Doug was an ever present person in my life when I was growing up, or now when we visit, he was just there. He was always around when I was growing up, just lived about 1/2 mile up the road from my parents house so I think I saw him practically everyday. He was the town barber for many years. One of the those quaint little barber shops where all the men would gather for the daily gossip. Years ago, when I was still in high school, Doug had a kidney transplant and was very sick for a long time. My mom reminded me last night that I had baked him some cookies and went and visited him during that time.
After my dad became disabled, Doug would always help where needed. He would stop and visit, remove the snow from their driveway, or any other task that my mom needed help with. My kids even know him as "Grandpa Doug" because they play with his grandchildren that live just across the street from my mom's house. They have been over to his house to help feed the sheep or some other farming thing that they think is so cool. It is really going to be weird when we visit Wyoming again not to see him driving by in his old blue truck, or walking through the field with his big straw hat and bib overalls. He will be missed.