Off Topic: If you have a parent/grandparent still alive, tell them you love them

Prayers for you and your family.

We might not get along much, but man, that's tough. I lost my grandfather while on a deployment I couldn't come home from, and not getting to say goodbye is one of the biggest regrets I have.

Sorry for your loss.

Was thinking a couple days ago how much I missed going to my grandparents’ place.

Perfectly said.

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We might not get along much, but man, that's tough. I lost my grandfather while on a deployment I couldn't come home from, and not getting to say goodbye is one of the biggest regrets I have.

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My grandfather, who was basically my father growing up, went on hospice with terminal cancer the week I was doing change of command inventories in Germany (about to take command). My battalion commander, who was a huge a-hole in most things, told me to book a plane the night I told him. Said we'd work the admin details out later. I was on a plane that night. I was able to be there when he took his last breaths. My commander was probably the poster child for "toxic leader" these days, but I'll always be grateful to him for what he did for me.

Grandpa was a career Marine, went from E1 to E9, DI, direct commission in Vietnam, retired as a Major (P) (or whatever that is for the USMC) but turned the promotion down because, and I quote, "frick the Pentagon"...which was his next assignment if promoted.

3 of my grandparents have been gone for over a quarter century, the other died in 2000. My dad has been gone 5 years.

My Dad just turned 98 and has been an indispensable source of historical information, particularly his experiences in World War 2, the Great Depression, growing up in Baton Rouge & St. Tammany Parish in the 20's and 30's, and his time at LSU in the 30's through 40's. He dropped out of school in 1940 to go build camps (Beauregard, Polk, Livingston, and Claiborne) for the Louisiana Maneuvers, then went to work for Standard Oil. He was eventually inducted into the Army on March 7, 1942, at Camp Claiborne. I will miss this one day.

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it left me thinking that service was one of the more truly valuable medical-related services that exist.

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Hospice is the life ending business and I just can't wrap my mind around the few hardest weeks in my family's life so far is just business as usual to them as they deal with dead or near dead people every single day.

I just don't think I could withstand that mentally.

Prayers and a solid post