supermassive black hole

The moment I leave a place, one person dies on me.

First Ray, and now my grandfather.

Sunday, during one of the days of the conference, I was happily chatting along with Poorneel when my Aunt calls out of the blue to tell me to go to LA quickly. I kept asking what was wrong, but she wouldn't say anything. So my cousin and I drove 1.5 hours up from San Diego to visit the grandparents.

Grandpa's health had declined. He was bedridden, with fever.

I had heard that day that my parents and uncle in Texas would be driving over 24 hours nonstop to LA. My cousins there would be flying out Wednesday.

I saw him, laying in bed, but he wouldn't open his eyes. He would respond to some stimulus such as foot pinching, and he would wince from time to time but made no other reactions.

Seeing as there was nothing more to do, I drove back to SD to attend the Monday conferences. I went to a 6:30 to 10 PM satellite symposium, wanted to go sleep, but had to entertain Poorneel's friend from UCLA. I crashed afterwards, and drove back up with my cousin on Tuesday. Stayed Wednesday, no change, and drove back down to SD since I had to return my rental car and fly back to SF to take care of some work at lab.

Thursday returning, I did little in lab, and dressed up for West Side Story, an event my lab mates and I planned a month in advance. They were cracking jokes, I was having fun, and halfway into the musical, I get a text from my brother that my grandfather passed away at 7:38 PM.

I asked how everybody was holding up, and he told me that people seemed well, all except for my grandma, the one person I worried about most from all of this.

Some of my cousins- the older ones- and I were assigned the task of being pallbearers while my brother has to take on the role of carrying his portrait during the funeral.

I have to get a haircut, buy a suit, and pack before Tuesday so that I can be in LA for the funeral on Wednesday. I am nowhere ready for this.