|
As many of you may remember, my brother in law committed suicide almost three years ago. He was very depressed and we never knew the true depth of it until it was too late. No matter what, he always made it to Sunday dinner and game night at his mother's. After dinner, we would regularly drag out some game or another and play. Around this time, I found out that they were playing Carcassonne on Xbox Live and decided that the board game of the same name would be a good gift for them. I don't remember if it was for Xmas or a birthday, but we got it for them.
The game was never opened as they were drifting apart and the two of them together for dinner\gamenight became more of a rarity. It sat on their shelf in their house right up until the end. We coped with the loss and the feelings we had about our sister in law and her part in what led up to his final decision. She is still in our lives, but we don't see her all that much.
She works at the Legal Seafood Restaurant whose name I was poking fun at in my thread last week. We went to lunch to celebrate my and Oonagh's best girlfriend's birthdays. She waited on us for lunch on Saturday. She brought us a free appetizer and dessert and we chatted throughout, of course. It came up that I finally, just recently, joined up XBox Live. Knowing she is on quite frequently, we swapped gamertags to friend each other. I told her that I was on my way after lunch to the local game store "Compleat Strategist" to buy "Carcassonne" with birthday money I was given. She told me how much she has been playing this on XBL and that she still had never opened the boardgame version Oonagh and I had given them. It then dawned on her and she offerred to give it to me as a birthday present as it has been collecting dust in her house for almost 3 years, still shrink wrapped.
Now I guess I fancy myself some sort of boardgame nut as I have nearly 100 different board/card/tabletop/dice games in my basement and I am always looking to add to the collection. I am neurotic about my games (ask Oonagh, she'll tell you) I like to make sure they are in fine condition and ready for use. I take way too good care of these games and will make sure that my son does not get the run of the basement to tear apart my games. He will be able to play with them, but when he is old enough and with daddy's supervision of course.
So, it hit me this morning on the significance to me of the gift she has given me. This game will be dedicated to my lost brother in law. I will either write it on the inside of the packaging, or perhaps on the instruction sheet.
David was our gaming buddy and we miss him greatly, especially whenever the games come out and we could use another player. We bought this game for him shortly before his end and now it has been given back to me. This means a lot to me as we shared many good times over many different games. This one would have been no different and I never want that forgotten, especially when this game is brought out.
To you David...
I'll set aside a group of the "meeples" for you every time we play. We miss you and thank you for the game.
/wipetears
_________________ This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
