Bad-news week, part II

My Uncle Robert--my dad's little brother--was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer yesterday, and he has something like a month to live. He's a great guy, really kind and fun, but he never did get my sense of humor. I wish that had been his only failing, but he has this kind of cow of a wife who's not a very nice person. She's not evil, but let's face it, she's pretty close. Strangely enough, she also happens to be my mom's former step-sister (don't ask). What can I say--they're all from Wyoming, and I guess there weren't that many other black people around back then for my family to marry or whatever. Not that there are now, of course. But I didn't realize that at the time.

OK, time to veer off. My parents escaped Wyoming before I was born in Denver (thank God), and I grew up in the Bay Area. But they dragged us back to Wyoming and Colorado every summer. So since I was always around family whenever we visited Wyoming, I thought there were lots and lots of black people there. Not my fault, you see, I was tricked.

Back to my uncle...no news is good news. Pap has no definite news about his brother at this point, but he'll probably go back to Casper next week. I hate to think of it, because he had major surgery in August and he's not as resilient as he used to be. Refuses physical therapy, would rather gimp along and not complain about anything. He's a far cry from the Twain character I nicknamed him after--that good-for-nothing cracker Pap Finn from Huck Finn. It's ironical, you see.

So Uncle Robert has been married to this Anna chick forever, and she's a nagging wench who used to scare me when I was little. She reminded me of Aunt Esther from Sanford & Son, but she looked like that without twisting up her face on purpose. He's lived his entire adult life with this woman, who seems to have kneaded the joy right out of him. And now that he's at the end of his life, I wonder if he even considers that he might have made a bad choice in marrying the person he did. Sure, he has two great kids--I love my cousins to death--but you can't live your life entirely through your kids, and he didn't seem to. So where is his reward for putting up with near-evil his whole life? That's right--dying a painful death. I don't get God right now.