Ever have to spend Christmas with a relative, that you were finally glad when that relative died?

[Archae]

I was thinking back to the Christmases we spent visiting one of my uncles.

My Dad never liked him, since my uncle beat him up mercilessly when they were boys.

He was a WW2 vet, in the US Army, but I swear he must have been tempted to desert and join Hitler's SS.

Horribly racist, and he hated Jews, I mean absolutely hated them.

He was an absolute failure at anything he tried, including owning a bar.
Yet he was always giving us "advice" that consisted mostly of his "good Christian" interpretations of the Bible.

And during the visits, he drank.
And the booze magnified his being such an asshole.

Even when he died, he died on Christmas Eve, so we ended up Christmas Day at a funeral.

20+ years now since he died, yet the memories of my uncle still haunt me a little.

[Crazy Dave]

1. I've had relatives I never cared for....

But was never glad when they died.

Even my worst enemies. Never glad to hear of a loss of life. Somebody out there loved that person and misses them dearly.

[Archae]

2. Even Dick Cheney?

:evilgrin:

[Crazy Dave]

4. Good point but....

He's not someone I know personally and I still don't believe I would be glad hearing of his death either. It would mean nothing to me of that I am sure.

Sorry. I just ain't wired that way, to be glad when someone dies :shrug:

[PassingFair]

3. "Somebody out there loved that person and misses them dearly."

You obviously never met my Grandmother.

I'm sure that TypeA corpse is spinning
in her grave.

She is NOT missed.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. My mother's cousin's husband.

He was mean and abusive. She was (still is) a kind, sweet lady and her husband was controlling and intimidating. I don't know that he ever physically abused her, but he was always belittling her and keeping her down. He had a lot of health problems, and she had to wait on him hand and foot. We were always kind of hoping those problems would catch up with him, and finally, about 12 years ago, they did. You want to speak only good of the dead, so all we said is, "X is dead. Good." The cousin is still around, in her late '80s, still just as nice as can be. I don't know whether she misses the old bastard.

[struggle4progress]

6. ... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send

to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee ...

DEVOTIONS UPON EMERGENT OCCASIONS
by John Donne
XVII. NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS
http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/donne/devotions/devotions17.htm

[Archae]

7. I think maybe I used the wrong word.

Instead of "glad" I should have said "relieved."

Because we wouldn't have to deal with my uncle anymore.

His drunken rages, vicious tirades against people around him at random, and always blaming "the Jews" for his failures.

[Kaleva]

8. The guy had some major issues. Unresolved, he wasted a miserable life.

My wife's family could have its own reality show. Sometime it's left up to me to lay down the hammer on one that going way over the line. Somebody should have done that with your uncle.