Journey To Being an Online Poker Pro

I’m writing this with a heavy heart today.  Today my family was dealt one of life’s “bad beats” as my grandmother passed away, about a month after the passing of my grandfather.  This is all after my aunt passed away in March.  All on the same side of the family and 2 out of 3 from cancer.  I feel so sad for my Dad and my uncle.  They lost a sister, a mother, and a father all within 9 months of each other and I can’t even imagine what that would be like.  I don’t want to know either.  We were a pretty tight family growing up.  My aunt and her three daughters lived about 7 houses down from us.  My two eldest cousins are both around the same age as my oldest younger brother (I’m the oldest) while my youngest cousin and youngest brother are a few years apart. 

My aunt had a very loud, infectious laugh.  She was a lot like my grandfather in that way and my Dad and uncle are like that too.  Always cracking jokes and trying to get everyone to laugh.  She was diagnosed with advanced skin cancer and was given only 6 months to live.  That was 6 years ago!  She got aggressive with the chemo treatments, sometimes travelling from her house just outside of Toronto to Buffalo where they have a really good cancer clinic.  She fought so bravely and to hang on for that long was just amazing.  As the cancer started to seemingly be kept in check, she went back to her usual life.  Working at the hobby shop that she opened from the winnings of a game show called Jackpot where she was the big winner for the week.  Evening sessions of Bingo every night with my grandmother and at Christmas time having a stand where they could sell the amazing gingerbread houses they made in my aunt’s basement every year.  I remember as kids we’d try to sneak downstairs and get into the jars upon jars of M&M’s, jellybeans, and Smarties that were down there.  And man did we get a verbal ass kicking when we got caught!  lol

My grandfather, although he liked to laugh a joke around a lot, was also a very stubborn and sometimes opinionated man, especially when it came to the major Toronto sports teams.  I wish I was able to see more of him towards the end.  They all live in Ontario and I live in British Columbia.  I haven’t seen him for about 14 years now and it really saddens me that I was not able to get out there more.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and when informed of this he simply said “No I don’t”.  hahaha  Sounds about right for him.  The doctors could show him the test results, X-rays, it wouldn’t matter.  In his mind he simply didn’t have it and that was that.  He was an avid skier for as long as he could until finally his knees wouldn’t allow it anymore.  Him and my grandmother were bitterly divorced about 25 years ago and had barely spoken a word to each other since.  With my aunt’s conditioning worsening, my Dad flew out there to be with her until the end.  He was pleasantly surprised to see that his Dad was there too.  They had gotten back in touch and he was brought over to my grandmother’s house a lot.  I loved seeing the pictures of everyone together as it brought back all the fond memories of our many family BBQ’s.  My grandparents always lived in a house that had a pool in the backyard so it always made the day a lot of fun when we’d go there.  In the end though, my grandfather did have pancreatic cancer and he passed away peacefully in his hospital bed last month, my Dad and uncle at his side.

My grandmother could be considered the glue of the family.  She was the one that always had us over for the BBQ’s of course, Christmas morning was always at her house, special occasion birthdays were always at her house.  She could be opinionated as well and she slightly reminded me of Ray Romano’s mom on Everybody Loves Raymond.  This past July I flew out with my son to visit her and the rest of the family.  He hadn’t met any of them yet and I wanted him to at least see them once.  We had a great time, going to Canada’s Wonderland and my grandmother even came with us to Niagara Falls.  It was a tough day on her but she wanted to come with us and was a real trooper getting up and down the streets.  Now, around the same time that my aunt was almost passing, my grandmother was diagnosed with lung cancer.  There were some scattered spots and it would take surgery to get them out but this wasn’t supposed to be a big deal.  She was scheduled to go in around the end of November.  The one concern was that she hasn’t had the strongest heart over the past few years.  The doctors thought it might be a good idea for her to get a pacemaker as they weren’t sure if her heart would be strong enough for the surgery on her lungs.  She decided to do that and was understandably nervous beforehand.  Apparently after the surgery they moved her into another room but didn’t hook her up to the monitors to make sure the pacemaker was working properly.  Nobody noticed she was gone until they went to do their rounds and by then it was too late.  This could have been avoided and it has come to a great shock to us all.  My aunt and grandfather we were able to prepare for in the end but this one we were not prepared for at all.

Christmas will be a very somber affair this year and I don’t think any of us can wait until 2010 gets here.  Personally speaking this year has been one of the worst of my life from a financial standpoint, family standpoint, just almost everything in general.  My son continues to and will always be the center of my life, growing up way too fast for my liking.  Just got his first report card back the other day and it’s all A’s and B’s while playing on the basketball team and going to volleyball camp on the weekends.  I’m so proud of him!  All that being said, it’s 19 days til New Year’s Eve and I know, even though I’m probably working, that I’ll be one of the first to tell 2009 to make sure the door doesn’t hit it in the ass on the way out.

To my grandmother, grandfather, and aunt:  I love you all very much and we are going to miss you incredibly!