Ben

This is the second such post on this blog. and yet it's far too soon

Today, my cousin died. He was 20 years of age and he had leukemia. He went through two rounds of treatments. After the second one they told him there was nothing more they could do. He could stay on meds and last another six months, or go off the meds and last six weeks.

He lasted 5 months.

I didn't see as much of him as I would have liked, though I saw him regularly when we were all little. At the family picnics at manly dam and clontarf, he used to rub sand in my hair, throw sand in my face, dunk me in the water, and generally treat me like a very young male treats a similarly aged female relative.

He grew up though, and he was a promising young man.

I'm sorry Ben. Really, really sorry.