The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Gone... and I Did Not Get to Say Goodbye


I just learned my sister has died. It was yesterday. She was in hospice in Ft Lauderdale when she passed and had been there only a day. She had a number of problems, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, but what killed her was pneumonia. She was relatively young, just a month short of turning 73 (trust me, that is young in this town). Since her husband, the "colonel", died  a few months ago (no, I did not mention it at the time) I expected she would not last long but not this soon.

My sister had been married 8 times. You could say she had a full and interesting life. She was a model in her younger years, mostly swimwear, in the years after her graduation from high school and after her first marriage came apart. A very pretty woman, you could say. Although I never thought of her as especially pretty. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. I can say it tends to blur the vision too.

The last few years of her life were full of problems. The Rheumatoid Arthritis cased a lot of the pain, she suffered some TIAs (transient ischemic attacks) a couple of years ago which affected her mind. Always a bit of a flake, she became incoherent at times and even combative. It took some time before she was properly diagnosed and, therefore, could be treated correctly. She also suffered from a variety of infections. The RA did not help because it is an auto-immune disease, making infection treatment a problem. It did not help that she developed some fungal infections which were misdiagnosed as bacterial.

I had no idea she had breathing problems too but she did.

Some might say she's in a better place. In any case, she suffers no longer.


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