Trying to Write Something Coherent

I've been trying to write something coherent here today. I'm having trouble because my mind is all scattered since I found out that the mayor of our town died suddenly last night. Not that he was a young man. I guess it's just that he's has been mayor of our little borough forever. We've been here 15 years, but even back then he'd already been mayor forever. He was the proverbial pillar of the community.

I can't say I knew him, or his wife of over 50 years, very well, but he was a fixture. He dressed up in costume for the town halloween party held every year in the local firehall and emceed the costume contest for all the town children. He showed up on our street every December dressed as Santa Claus, riding the firetruck, dispensing candy to whatever kids came running out of their houses. If a tree fell or a line was down someplace in the borough, there he'd be, making sure people were doing what they were supposed to.

He was just one of those guys who's always been here, and you presume, however irrationally, always will be.

But time marches on. My husband turned 47 today. We've been married 20 years, and our kids are leaving the nest. When we moved here, we had two kids and I was pregnant. We were the new young family in the town. Now we have four kids, one of whom is off at college, the second preparing to do the same. We're not old yet, but we are certainly headed in that direction.