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Yikes, your poor sister...and you!! Aneurysms are nothing to sneeze about. My second oldest sister (born 1942) had four aneurysms in her head. One was on the right side of her head. It was so big it made her eye turn towards here nose. It was her eye doctor who noticed it. He thought she'd had a stroke. Sent her to a neurologist. He catheterized her, found the four, operated and tied off the inner carotid on that side of head, and it stopped the flow to three of the four. She only had a small one left in the back of her head, and they were going to keep an eye on that with cat scans. She stopped smoking cold turkey the day she had the catheterization. Five years later she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Died on her birthday in 2011.

Everyone smoked in my family but me (the baby), and I'm the last one left. Both parents died of lung cancer. My only brother, a Vietnam vet died of a massive heart attack at 51. He had also stopped smoking after a mild heart attack at 48. My oldest sister lived til 74, the longest up until that time. That was only because she'd been institutionalized most of her adult life because she was an alcoholic who suffered from alcohol-induced dementia. NY State cut out all smoking for residents. She died of a stroke.

About your Jack Russell pup. I love those dogs. I was first introduced to the breed watching the Wishbone Mysteries, I think were on PBS in the afternoon. I also knew that in medieval times, they used them as rat catchers. When my brother passed, I got reacquainted with cousins on my father's side of the family. My cousin Sonny and his wife had a Jack Russell. Her name was Lucy. She was a character. Both Lucy and my cousin have been gone for a while now.

Time marches on whether you like it or not. I tell young kids to make sure they know that the older they get, the faster time will fly, so enjoy it while you can.

Both of my parents smoked. Dad finally quit in 1967. Mom continued through 1969. Both consumed alcoholic beverages in the evenings and wine at dinner. Dad became a T1 diabetic as a consequence of his choices. Even though my mom stopped smoking and ceased drinking when my dad passed, she developed congestive heart failure, a-fib and lung cancer in both lungs. I'm convinced that the hospice people my sister engaged hastened my mom's death by feeding her lots of morphine. She had no pain that would have justified any use of morphine. It was a tool to drive her to the cemetery quickly.

Your family has certain borne a long series of medical problems. Being the "baby" of the family, you will be seeing most of the family pass. All of my parents generation have passed. I have a sister and cousin who are still alive from my generation. Another cousin passed from esophageal cancer. We were just months apart in age.

My Dachshund and Jack Russell pups woke me up at 7:20 this morning. My wife was already up, so I was "fair game" for a morning snuggle. It's not a bad way to wake up.