Dearly Departed

My recently departed Great Aunt (whose funeral I'm attending tomorrow) was clearly looking down on me today.  Or my car, at least, as it passed its MoT on the first attempt this morning, thereby saving me a lot of money.  Still she was ninety six - my Great Aunt, not the car - and hadn't been in the best of health for the past few months, so her passing away didn't come as a great surprise.  That said, her demise has been a sobering existence, as she was the last member of that generation of my family still standing.  (I still have an extant Aunt who is slightly older, but she is that last of my father's siblings, making her a generation later than my Great Aunt, who was my maternal Grandmother's sister).  Which means that myself and my siblings shuffle forward toward being the oldest family members, (at the moment that honour falls to my mother, her sister and the other aforementioned ancient Aunt).  Which is pretty scary and makes me feel old.  Damn, it's bad enough that I'm already a Great Uncle myself, with what seems like hordes of Great Nieces, (there are actually only three, but they seem like more). 

Without wishing to sound morbid, it's all another reminder of one's own mortality and that we only have a finite amount of time and perhaps should be using it more constructively.  Certainly, it leaves me questioning ever more why I'm still wasting my time with my current job. I really could be using my time more wisely.  But that's a whole different topic which I don't want to revisit in this post.  But the idea of being some kind of elder statesman in my family is a daunting one.  It implies that I should be more responsible and be setting an example for younger family members.  So far I've done my best to be a bad influence, with the various highly unsuitable birthday and Christmas presents I keep giving my two older Great Nieces, including chemistry sets with explosive experiments, fake dog turds and whoopee cushions.  They enjoyed them, but I had to suffer death threats from their mother.  Actually, the eldest Great Niece has a birthday coming up and, with the car's MoT costing me far less than expected, I'll be able to look to giving her something really dangerous.  There's the added bonus that as she and her sister are currently living in the US, I'll have the entire Atlantic Ocean between me and potential reprisals from my Niece.