Just returned from Florida where my father in law has passed on to the great beyond. Although he financially assisted a good number of people there were no flowers or cards and no friends visiting. Strangely his own wife and children were not saddened nor was a single tear shed in his memory. His body was picked up at the hospital taken to the funeral home and cremated. My wife and I picked up the box of ashes a few days later which her mother decided to keep on the floor in the bedroom closet. Such is the fate of a one who was a nasty old man.
Tom, (name changed to protect the guilty), started out life in Austria and at the age of eight or nine had to be sent to England to escape the Nazi take over of that nation. Yes he was Jewish and spent the rest of the war along with his twin brother on a farm in the English countryside. At war's end he and his brother went to Canada where they were reunited with family and taken to the United States. Tom did one year active duty in the army then went to college and became a mathematician. He got a job in Long Island, NY where he met his wife who was not Jewish. They had three children, two boys and a daughter. Of course there is a lot more to this story but suffice it to say that their home life was quite normal for the time in the US. The kids grew up and Tom retired with his wife to settle into a relaxed mode going fishing. They bought a home in Florida and a place on the river in Pa to avoid the hot summers down south.
Tom was a registered Democrat albeit a conservative one most of his life. As he got into his sixties his political views started to take a turn to the right. He started listening to conservative talk radio. After September 11th 2001 Tom had what I call a complete break with reality spending most of his time watching Fox News. He became a complete racist and went on rants about every minority on the planet. This just added to his already pretty rabid sexist mentality. When then Senator Obama decided to run for president Tom could no longer contain himself. Every time I met him he described Obama using the N-word. All through President Obama's first term Tom referred to him as that N. Tom was totally convinced he would never be reelected. He lost all hope when President Obama was given a second term by the voters. His son is convinced that the 2012 Presidential election killed his father.
There was a phone message from Tom made on his last day on earth. In that message he requested that his radio be brought to the hospital so he could listen to Rush Limbaugh.