My sister-in-law Virginia Transue writes to tell me that my man Jacques’s brother John Transue (born 6/2/47) died yesterday, after 66 years of difficult life. That leaves Virginia (the widow of Jacques’s brother Bill) and I as the only surviving members of our generation in the Transue family: Jacques, the youngest son, died first; then Monique, the mother; then father Bill; then J’s older brother Bill; and now John, the middle son. The next generation down has Bill and Virginia’s sons Tom and Joe, and Jacques’s son Kit and daughter Emily (from his first marriage).
The Transue men from a time long ago, in a stunt engineered by elder Bill:
(#1)
From the top: Jacques, John, Bill, and father Bill. Plus the dog. This would have been during World War II.
John developed schizophrenia in late adolescence and never quite got things together thereafter. Later in life he suffered an ever-increasing series of organic disorders, which eventually ganged up to kill him. His nephews Tom and Joe sat with him as he died — as they had so often come to rescue him from his confusions and delusions.
Here’s John at his mother’s 80th birthday, looking characteristically odd:
(#2)
Unfortunately, I have no photos of John in sunnier times, beyond #1.
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