Few weeks ago a distant cousin of mine had a brain hemorrhage. He went into a coma and the doctors determined that it was too late to save him. I didn't know him well, but I went to see him on the night his life support was turned off. As you can imagine, there was a lot of crying.

There were two young women and a young man who I later found out were his children. The older of the two girls was the most composed. I didn't see her cry except a few sniffs now and again. I don't think she had much of a relationship with her father at all. In fact, I saw her smiling and chatting to some of my uncles and cousins.

Her younger sister on the other hand, was completely in pieces and cried all the time. I saw her facw twice when she was crying. The first time was when she was talking to her Belgian mother on the phone. She burst into tears while she was talking. There was no BLT, but her face sort of "crunched up". Her half-brother came and hugged her. The other time was when I went to see the cousin at his bedside. The girl was sitting next to his bed and heaving with sobs. Tears were running freely down her face. One of my uncles handed her a tissue, which she used to blow her now and cover her eyes.

The brother was also distraught. He was more of a silent crier who kept his face covered most of the time. I don't remember his ever making a sound. I saw his face several time - it had the same crunched up look as his sister. Quite a few times and saw him being hugged and comforted by his sisters or his Aunt.

The Aunt was a lot younger than his brother. He was about 46 and she's in her thirties and very pretty. Like the oldest daughter, she was also more composed. The only difference is that she kept breaking down without warning. She cried openly without covering her face. Her crying expression was kind of like a "smile", because the corners of her mouth went upwards. There were plenty of free flowing tears from her. The last time I saw her cry was when she was talking to the doctor. The final decision had been made the remove the life support machine. The doctor was going home. She smiled and thanked him and told him to pray for her brother's soul. Then she pressed her lips together and her eyes crunched up and she was crying again.

I think the most distraught person in there was my cousin's third (and current) wife. She was much younger (in her twenties and also very attractive). She seemed to have trouble walking from just how shaken she was, and was either being supported by someone or was supporting herself by holding the wall. She cried softly most of the time with her face lowered or concealed. Shortly after the final decision was made to take off the life support. She was being supported by her sister-in-law and was sobbing openly. She had a mild BLT, with her bottom lip slightly bulged in the middle, and her chin had wrinkled slightly and gone upwards.

Three of my uncles were present and they were tearful from time to time, with free flowing tears that were wiped with tissues and noses blown. One of my uncles spoke to his wife on the phone, his wife broke and became cracked and high pitched like it did when he was crying. His wife came to the hospital shortly before the life support was taken off. When he was finally declared dead, she too burst into tears briefly. I saw her looking downwards and and her bottom lip and chin were quivering.

The funeral took place the next day. The body was briefly on display for people to see one last time. His (all male) colleagues came to see him. They were all visibly upset. One had visible tears on his cheek, another was wiping his eyes and pretty much all of them had sunken and red-rimmed eyes. The son and the younger daughter were there as well. The daughter was leaning against her brother and sobbed softly. Her sobs were just about loud enough to hear, and tears were pouring down her cheeks like what I saw previously. The son was silent. One of my uncles had his fist on his mouth. His eyes were cruched up and tears were falling from them. I confess, I had a slight lump in my throat too at this time.

I was there at the actual burial as well. There was no crying at this point. Incidently, this is the first burial that I've ever been to. I even helped to shovel the Earth back in.

Last edited by TorNorth (December 20, 2013 3:27 pm)