This morning at 9:30am I took the call we knew would happen at some point. My sister in law called to say that my father-in-law had passed away in his sleep in Vermont at the age of 90. A WW2 veteran, he used to love to tell his stories of being stationed in over here in Portsmouth during the war.
It was difficult to know what to do as DW was at work and had taken the car. She works 23 miles away and it's not an easy drive at the best of times and I didn't what to phone her and then have her driving home upset. I then remembered my sister and her husband were going on holiday today to Northumberland, so called and thankfully they had not set off so they could drive me to my wifes place of work so I could drive her home, and I then called my wife.
We are awaiting news of when the funeral will be so we can make arrangements to go over (most likely to NJ where he spent almost his entire life).
An added complication is that my passport expired today, what with the trips we'd made I couldn't get it renewed earlier, but I have managed to get an appointment in the passport office in Liverpool for Thursday for an expedited service (costs an addition £40) which is available 4 hours from submitting the documents.
I'm grateful that it was quick and peaceful - I had envisaged that it might be an illness when we wouldn't know when or whether to go over, so I think it's for the best this way.
