What do I say about Joe? He was an ornery guy, a tough Navy veteran but a softy at heart. He was the only grampa I had (adopted at that). He was always ready to help with fixing this or that, or always had good advice on stuff. At 86 years old he was still getting up on the roof and fixing stuff, or crawling under the house to do something. So never ever in a million years did I think I would get the call that came today...
That's Joe holding the little Panda Bear halloween 2005.
Trixie, his wife of 34 years, called to tell me Joe had committed suicide. He had multiple strokes over the last year and was very depressed, I had no idea it was that bad. He left her a note saying he was going to see their moms and thank you for 34 wonderful years, she could find him out in the shed... I'm in tears again as I write this, those words won't leave my head for a long time.
Trixie is like my gramma, I am so worried about her now. She said she's staying with friends, I am soooo so sad for her. Joe was her world.
The worst part about all this is I had been having this really strong feeling we needed to go visit them "before anything happened", almost eerie now and of course we didn't get there.
So please go see those loved ones you've put off seeing. Don't have regrets like I now have.
We loved you Joe! I'm sorry you were hurting so bad.
