Day # 13 - In Memory

"For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these,
'It might have been.'"  
(John Greenleaf Whittier)

I don't have a photo to go with this post.  I guess that's to be expected since I never met - never saw in this life - the one I am remembering.  I am thankful for family and for my half-brother, Julius Vincent Pierotti, Jr. 

Last night as I was getting ready to post my Day # 13 Gratitude post,  I was wandering around in Ancestry.com and discovered, quite unexpectedly, that my half-brother has died.  He died in February at the age of 69.  I don't know what the cause of death was, and probably never will, although the one time I talked to him on the phone,  he had just been diagnosed with Type !! Diabetes,  and I suspect that it might have been from complications as our Father died of complications of Diabetes at the age of 70-something and heart disease. 

Sometimes people in our lives die, and we are devastated. It seems the mourning will never stop, and we already KNOW that the grieving doesn't ever stop - -  it does abate somewhat, but it never really stops.  Sometimes,  we hear of the death of strangers - like movie stars or Astronauts or great religious thinkers or national leaders.  We are at a time right NOW when thoughts of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy weigh on our minds and occupy our thoughts.  I never met him, but felt I knew him, and I was saddened.  Sometimes people die that we think we "should" feel something but don't. There are all sorts of conditions and situations. 

I will not really miss my half-brother because we had no relationship either in childhood or as adults.  He rejected that, and didn't want to meet me.  I don't know whether he ever REALLY told my half-sister about me, but I finally wrote her a bit over a year ago. She never responded, and I find that sad, but nothing I can do anything about.  I read, also on Ancestry.com that she is living in Hartwell, GA which is less than 50 miles from me. I maintain some hope that something will change. It's hard to go through life knowing one has siblings - half or otherwise - who refuse to even meet me.  Well, now Vincent is gone, and that's where my sadness is . . . the death of "HOPE" in that regard more than the death of the "PERSON".  

He was a good man.  A devout Catholic with a lovely family.  He was a good boss according to things I heard about him and according to some entries in the funeral home guest book.  He had children and a wife and grandchildren who will miss him dearly, and I will spend the next few days "missing" what might have been . . .

"Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord."
~ Rest in Peace - 

Julius Vincent Pierotti, Jr.
September 21st, 1943 - February 3rd, 2013