Thank you, Smiley! It is kind of funny, but I don't even know a lot of my own relatives. Some of our relatives were not close when we were growing up, and now only after some of them have died we are getting together with the next generation and establishing friendships with them.
I knew 2 of this guys brothers, but I didn't know him before I went to the Philippines with my friends. The one brother is the father of my cousin's wife, whose children I am related to. This brother I worked with in a school, with me at that time doing teaching assistant work, and he was a janitor, so I visited with him a lot while we both were watching elementary school kids eat their lunches to try to keep good manners and stop any food throwing that might get started. So I got to know this brother well, and he was almost related to me. Another brother I knew from his job as bus driving maintenance and bus driving supervisor. The brother that has cancer I thougth I knew, but I had him confused with a much younger person with the same last name. So I would tell them, "Yes, I know him, but no I didn't know him." As it turned out my he and my brother did know each other. On our return from the Philippine's my friends and I stopped at their house and visited with them as well as eating also. Like I said in another post, we had just eaten a couple of times in two different malls with their daughter in Manila. He also was the assistant school bus driver for this route. The regular bus driver got ran over by a tractor, and he had to be in the convelescent home while recovering, and during that time this guy drove the bus that picked up our grandkids. I was very sad hearing about him having cancer in that late stage, but yes he is a commited practicing Christian, so I know that he knows where he is going, and has settled things between his soul and his savior. We will miss him though, and I am sad that I did not know him before, and the Philippine connection is what caused us to get to know each other. I have seen him in church several times, but our church is large, and he seems to be in a hurry to get home afterwards, so I have not been successful to visit with him at church. Well, we will have lots of visiting in heaven!