Shaken

As I was writing that last post, my parents called. And casually, after discussing other things, informed me that a family friend had passed away. They thought they'd told me before, but they hadn't. They asked whether I'd be able to come up for the memorial service, but by now it's too short notice. I'm shaken, even though I haven't been in touch directly with the family for year. But when I was a kid, we were really close. Our parents met in ESL class soon after both families had immigrated. We spent every Thanksgiving together, until we didn't. He'd been ill for a while, but it's still so hard to accept.