What a crap-ass day.

It's gray and rainy here, and will be until probably sometime in May. Welcome to Spring in Ohio. Winter is bad enough with the cold and the snow, but I think Spring can be even worse at times.

My aunt (my late-mom's older sister) called last night, and in the message she left on the answering machine let me know that my uncle (late-mom's younger half-brother) died yesterday morning. I want to say he was around 8 years younger than my mom, which would put him in his late 60's now, if I'm doing the math correctly. We weren't close. The last time I saw or spoke to him was just a few months after my dad died back in 2005, and before that the last time I'd seen or spoken to him was at my mom's funeral in 1998.

But still.

My aunt is now the only surviving member of my mom's side of the family, which has to be a horrible feeling for her. My dad was the last one in his family to go. I'm not really any closer to my aunt than I was to my uncle, and not for any particular reason... we just kind of lost touch after my mom died, and you know after a certain amount of time passes, thing just feel... awkward, you know?

Of course, this for me dredges up the multitude of unresolved feelings surrounding my brother and the fact that I, for all intents and purposes, don't really seem to exist for him any longer. Shouldn't siblings cling to each other once both the parents are gone? Or is that just the fantasy that I've made up in my head?

Maybe tomorrow there'll be sunshine.