We return you now to your regularly scheduled comic….

on January 2, 2012

The latter half of 2011 was a long hard slog for the extended Kandra family. My younger brother, Tom, had been putting up a good fight for two years in his battle with colon cancer, but the beginning of 2011 marked the start of his downward spiral. We could see him struggling and by the summer we all knew deep down that time was short. We started visits to Maine to help out at his home. My sister and her husband generously paid for a large cottage rental on Fry Island, Maine for the week of July 4th. We all had a wonderful week not thinking about sickness and pain medications while we watched the kids tube behind a borrowed powerboat and had lobster feasts. The family had a good time ribbing me for the broken propeller we had to replace (I maintain I was just finishing off the prop my two brothers-in-law had dinged earlier). And we all watched my other sister’s pregnant belly expand.

The support shifts at Tom’s house increased soon after and my two sisters, my parents, and I took turns helping Tom, his wife and daughter deal with emergencies and mundane tasks. Email, texts, voicemail, and phone calls flew daily and sometimes minute-by-minute. Our one bright spot was the birth of my newest nephew in early September. Tom got to see little Grady Thomas on a long iPad FaceTime talk a week or so before he passed. I think he waited till Grady was born knowing how the little guy would help us all.

Time does heal, but not all wounds heal fully, and the healing has just started in our case. We just had a good visit at my parent’s house for the holidays. Everyone was there. We had Hanukkah, Christmas, a sixth birthday, and a first lost tooth all in one week. Busy week! The world turns, and the sun comes up in the East, and life continues. Loss can help you decide what is important and what in not.

One Small Step is officially starting up again today (Jan. 02, 2012). I’m not saying this little strip is important in any way, but it is important to me. It’s been a dream of mine to do a strip ever since I read “Backstage at the Strips” by Mort Walker when I was in High School. Of course I’m not the next Charles Schultz but I think I produce something that’s a little bit above average. I like it at least. I’m making a second book and had hoped to make my comic con debut at the next New England Webcomics Weekend, that doesn’t seem to be happening so I’ll look into some other con.

Tom’s passing has got me thinking a lot about Life the Universe and Everything. I’m going to try to not worry about things so much going forward and to do and be what matters most to me and my loved ones. I’m working on enjoying my kids, wife, and life more and trying to be more aware of being present. Lofty goals and daily life gets in the way but I’ll try. And yeah, I know, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

So thanks for reading in the past, thanks for being patient these last months, thanks for hopefully reading in the future, and thanks for putting up with my rambling-stream-of-consciousness brain dump here.

Joe