Watching: Freaks and Geeks. This series and The West Wing are my only must-see TV programs this season.

Reading: I Know Some Things. Still enjoying this marvelous collection of stories told from the viewpoint of children.

The End of an Empty Life

Tab's Uncle Walt died earlier this week, and the funeral was this morning. The funeral home is in our neighborhood so Tab decided to walk there and then go to the Mass in his mother's car. For the fourth time this year, Tab served as pallbearer. Dressed in his conservative grey suit, the one he reserves for weddings and funerals, Tab joked, "I should walk up and down the streets, calling, `Bring out your dead!' "

I laughed, but I was also reminded of that scene in A Christmas Carol in which Scrooge begs the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: "If there is any person in the town, who feels emotion caused by this man's death, show that person to me," but the only emotion the Spirit can show him is the relief felt by his debtors. In our case, the only emotion engendered by Uncle Walt's death is a bit of morbid humor.

Well, that's not quite true. I do find it sad that there is no one who will mourn this man. His wife died just under three months ago. They had only one child, a daughter, who died ten years ago from multiple sclerosis. His three grandchildren, all adults, never visited and had no interest in him. When Uncle Walt entered the nursing home, his grandchildren were offered their grandparents' collection of family photos, but none of them wanted it.

To be fair, Uncle Walt was not a man to endear himself to people, even his own kin. For years he bullied his wife, who waited on him hand and foot. When Aunt Edna unexpectedly died from a heart attack in August, cynical family members were heard to say, "Poor Edna was so tired; dying was her only way to get a rest."

Even when he was able-bodied, Uncle Walt spent all his free time in front of the TV. It just seems like such an empty life.

In the past two years, Tab has lost five of his aunts and uncles. On his mother's side, only two out of six siblings remain. Stephanie seems a little shaken by this fact, but it hasn't made her draw any closer to Aunt Dot, her only remaining sister. Most of the time they aren't even speaking to each other.

Tab's relatives are much older than mine; all my uncles and aunts are fifty-something and still hale and hearty. I'm glad of it. I enjoy my aunts and uncles, most of whom are warm, caring family members. Besides, in an admittedly selfish way, I like knowing there is a buffering generation between me and the Reaper.

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