sic transit ...

Went out to get a bite of food and shop for the means to cook dinner.

Came back, and got the word that my aunt Susan, my dad's older sister, died at three this afternoon.

More on Aunt Susan

She was lucid and in no pain, right to the end. Her ex-husband, who had set aside his whole life to come out to New Hampshire from England to take care of her during her last illness, was all broken up on delivering the news.

Funeral to be in the neighborhood of New Bedford, Mass, where her son lives.

Not sure when. Not sure what all is to happen.

I never knew her all that well. She had a strained relationship with her younger brother, my father, but he was shocked - not surprised, since everyone had seen it coming eventually, but shocked - at the news.

And it is shocking when a contemporary dies. I don't know if it's worse when you're young, and thinking that it's too damn soon, or when you're older, and it seems like it might be a harbinger of your own mortality.

It's sobering, seeing the obituaries, and seeing the ages and dates of birth creeping closer to one's own.