My cousin's funeral is tomorrow. He laughed like his father and always invited me back into our extended family. He was two years older and after many afternoons in backyards in first and second grade, we heard from each other less as the years and miles went on. I feel sad about this because of all of my cousins, he is the one I knew.

It is also too bad because he had recently started a blog. While he may have started it to help solve his son's murder, it really reads like he did it for himself. He died driving "his couch" back from northern Canada. He hoped to return a better writer. I feel glad to have his blog to read and wish he could have read my blog before his death. Perhaps we could have become close again in the blogsphere. I'm sure we would have enjoyed that.

Even though I just heard about his wake and funeral, it is possible for me to get there. And my daughter needs me here. Work could wait. A choice between family and family, between cousin and father, between living beyond death and living healthy.

I see what the day brings.