Monique Wanted Me To Pass Along An Important Message

[adam loumeau]

Janette's husband Paul is passing away today.  He may have passed away by the time you read this email.  This is obviously an incredibly sad ending to a long, ugly battle with cancer.  There were miracles along the way but in the end, all of us leave this earth at some point in time and unfortunately, Paul is being taken from us far too early.

To the cousins, I ask that you reflect on how you can best show your love and support to Janette.  The knee jerk reaction is to send your condolences right away.  However, I ask that you put yourself in Janette's shoes.  She probably does not want to receive a new text message every 5-10 minutes by someone bringing up this horrific circumstance.  Please do not take my tone to be harsh.  Everyone has the best of intentions and there is no perfect way to show support for a grieving widow.  I certainly don't have the right answers.  My advice would simply be to ponder your relationship with Janette and try to thread the needle between showing your love for her but at the same time not being one of many individuals who may or may not be bombarding her with messages.

To the aunts and uncles, I would strongly urge you to reflect deeply on your relationship with Janette and tread lightly moving forward.  No one that I know of has dealt with more grief and hardship over the last few years than Janette, with all of her trials having to do with family on some level.  So please take stock in where your relationship is at with Janette and try to respond delicately and appropriately, assuming a direct response is even an appropriate response under the circumstances.

P.S. I lost track of who is and is not included in this email group so please inform the other cousins if they do not receive this email

[adam loumeau]

Monique confirmed with me that Janette is doing better than might be expected and that it would be fine to bombard her with support.  She is being strong about the whole situation.