... my uncle passed away last night

Just out of the random blue, I got a text from sister down in deepest, darkest Africa a couple days ago. And yes, they have cell phones in Africa.

In this text, she told me that one of my uncles - who doubles as my Godfather - was in the hospital, that he was having complete organ shut down and was in a coma. The doctors gave him him between two and seventy two hours.

Like good siblings, my father and his sister were at my uncle's bedside the whole time.

Then last night, I received THE text.

"Uncle Den just passed away."

There's a certain horrible, saddening finality to death.

Even though Uncle Den and myself were never really ever very close, it's quite a jolt to find out that a family member is sick, and two days later they're gone.

I remember Uncle Den to be a quiet, intelligent man who had one hellava golf swing - when he didn't have the occasional bout of gout. He never married (some quiet speculation about that one, although it was never spoken about) and worked for himself as an accountant.

It had been years since I last saw him. But I guess I need to start getting used to the idea of family members leaving this world for the next. None of us are as young as we used to be, and the circle of life must keep turning. But it really puts things in perspective.