Well, I lost durn near everyone who ever meant anything to me exceptin' Ben and Julia and their spouses and children, but I'll just talk about the first and the last.

I was born into a world where the papers were all abuzz with the news of this saint on earth called Mr. Hitler. Kinda funny that he turned out to be the only man I ever practiced hating.

I was eight years old when the war ended, and I didn't understand much...All I knew was that I wasn't ever going to see my Uncle Charlie again because of the war, and it was Hitler started the war.

Charlie was still a boy when he died. He used to sneak me candies, but he enlisted in 1943 when he turned 18. If they ever told me just when or where he died, I can't remember, but I am sure that he got blown up by a grenade somewhere in France. I guess if it was France he must have made it to D-Day, but that's small comfort.

The latest one to die on me was the worst of all. Sure, Charlie's dying was bad, but I was just a lad at the time and didn't really understand; but the last person to die on me was back in 1998, so it's all fresh.

That was when me ol' missportin' Jenny, whom I was with for 40 years, passed away of a heart attack. I mentioned that in the smoking thread because that's why I quit.

I said it before and I'll say it again; When you live your whole life beside one person, and then suddenly she's gone, it leaves a hole in your life that nothing can fill. I was married to Jenny for 40 years, and I knew her since we five or six years old. Nothing can prepare you for losing something like that. Not all the deaths put together, not when Charlie died, not when my ma died, and not when my pa died. I guess it's comforting to know that I'm probably going to be the next to go. I don't want to be there at Ben's funeral or Julia's, or god forbid, Lana's.

I'm proud of you for letting go of Sam, Spatvark, but I ain't never going to let go of Jenny.