Okay, so we all know the mass of celebrity deaths that happened in the last couple-few months. It's old news, but worth mentioning, considering the past week and a half has been horrible.

Nationally, there was a shooting in Fort Hood, and a British tourist was killed in Amarillo, and I heard something about another shooting in Florida. Today, sometime around noon, there was another shooting that happened just a few miles south from where I live. One person was killed before the gunman shot and killed himself in a drug testing clinic. Happened right across the street from where a friend of mine was working at the time.

Personally, three men of close relation to me have died. One to leukemia, one to a heart attack (we think), and one to cancer.

Honestly, I wasn't close to a single one of them. I don't think I even met my husband's uncle. I never met his friend's dad, but the sort of depth of emotion that this friend spoke about his father and the sort of relationship they had makes me immensely sad for his loss, especially in light of the sadness I felt (and still feel from time to time) when my Meema died.

My grandfather. My dad's father. I have some fond memories from when I was a small child of him before he and his wife moved to Colorado, but beyond that, my connection with him was slim. I have no loving eulogy to offer for him beyond that it is sad the way he wasted away due to the cancer he had. The thing that eats me the most of this situation is the strained relationship that has occurred between my mother and younger brother and myself. I won't go into the specifics because that is between me and them, but I am incredibly sad about it. At least I know I can talk to my dad and have someone who will listen and understand even if we don't agree.

But all this death is very draining. I wish all of those who lost a loved one recently to one of the shootings or even in a less dramatic way the very best. My heart goes out to them.