Things change.

At noon today, I thought tonight's blog post would be about my new glasses getting here.  I was going to include pictures and talk about how great it is to be able to see this well again.

That all changed when my mom got home from Jacksonville about 3:15.  I was bringing in the last load of refrigerator stuff from the car and she looked at me and told me to get in her room because she needed to talk to me.  She was so serious that my first reaction was to ask if I was in trouble.  She said no and we walked back there.  Then she looked at me.

My Uncle Ed died last night.

It still doesn't feel real.  I just talked to him yesterday morning at about 10 am.  And then last night he died in his sleep.  I'm glad it was that way if it had to happen.

It just blows my mind how quickly things can change.  And how one of the last things he did on this earth was put more money in my account to make sure I can afford to get an apartment.  One of the last things he did was take care of me and bless me.  Because that's who he was.  He was an angel.  And from what I've read on news articles, he was an angel to many people in his community, too.

When Mom said it, I couldn't speak for about five minutes.  I don't know the last time I felt shock like that.  He was the closest thing I had to a grandfather.  And it's the first major death I've experienced since my dad died, which means it's the first major death that I will remember in detail.  And that sucks.  But he was 83, I think, somewhere around there, and 83-year-olds have health issues and these things happen.  And that's life.

That doesn't make it suck any less, though.

But one of the last things he said to me yesterday was that we should always try our best, but God will take care of us.  And that's what I'm going to remember.  He was an incredible, Godly man and he's with Jesus now.  So as cliche as it sounds, he really is infinitely better off.

There's nothing I can do to change what happened.  What I can do is go to New York and do big things and be successful in my goals for my future.  Because that's what he wanted.  That's how I made him so proud of me.  So that's what I'm going to do.