A complete stranger died...

...it was my uncle. About two weeks or so ago, my parents were here to help us with the apartment. We needed to hang up our kitchen cabinets and they were too heavy for just Christina and me to hold. So while we were working on the second one, my dad says: "Uncle Bruno died." I didn't know what to say. I told him I can't hardly remember him at all, but he didn't wanna tell me a lot of details about what happened and why he was gone. Apparently Bruno was experiencing chest pain at work and felt really crappy, so he asked his boss if he could go home. He said okay and then my uncle collapsed and died on the spot from a heart attack. My parents went to the funeral but nobody else from my immediate family did. Heck, my grandma didn't even learn until a few days later, but she was in the hospital anyway.
So now you're wondering what this is all about, and I can't really tell you either. Like I said, the guy was a complete stranger. I remember his name and he had two kids as well that still live in Löhne, but I never see them either. And I guess everybody kinda closed that chapter anyway. Luckily my mom filled us in one some of the details and I could really tell how my dad didn't wanna talk about it. I can't even imagine what he must feel like. Apparently Bruno was experiencing some severe personal problems after his divorce and it came to a point where it was just impossible for him to live with my grandma anymore. So he left. And basically there was no contact for like 20 years. At the funeral my parents learned that he remarried and was doing fine again. His own kids didn't even really know too much either.
So even though he was a complete stranger, he was still my uncle, but since I didn't know him it didn't really affect me. But of course I began to think about the tragedy of it all. I just couldn't even begin to grasp the idea of not being in touch with my brother anymore. Not that we're the closest or anything, but he's still my brother. And I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I have two cousins that I barely know at all. I probably wouldn't even recognize them on the street.
I meant to blog about this right away, but wasn't online at the time. So now you have to live with this distanced version of my emotions at the time.