my mama's dead, yeah i'm sad, look nie-nie there's mcdonald's

this conversation with my housemate felt deep, also typical, and cracked me up, all at the same time.

it's really a 2-part conversation:

part 1: driving home, we pass a cemetery.
housemate starts to cry and sniffle.
not too worried, i let him get it out, in case it's just that his feelings are hurt that he can't get his way about something.
he keeps crying, so i ask, are you crying?
housemate: yeah.
me: are you sad?
h: yeah.
m: what are you sad about?
h: driver's dead.
m: [not sure of housemate's speech] you're sad because your mother's dead? are you thinking about when you visited your mom's grave on mother's day with your brother?
h: no.  driver's dead.
m: [still not sure] your sister?
h: no - driver.
m: ok. so, you're said that driver is dead? [i don't know who driver is - a sibling, i suppose.]
h: yeah.
m: yeah, it's sad when people die. did the cemetery remind you of driver?
h: yeah, the graveyard.

part 2: driving home, not passing a cemetery
h: [no crying, out of the blue and matter-of-factly] driver's dead.
m: yeah, you were crying about that the other night.
h: yeah.
m: were you sad?
h: yeah.
m: are you sad now?
h: yeah.
h: my mama's dead.
m: your mom's dead, too, right?
h: right. my daddy's dead.
m: yeah.
h: driver's dead. my sister's dead.
m: and does that make you sad?
h: yeah, i was crying - long ago.
m: yeah, you were crying when we passed the graveyard.
h: [as we approach a mcdonald's on the road]  look, nie-nie [nickname for other housemate] - there's mcdonald's!
m: [pause, then laugh] no, we're not going to mcdonald's right now.

cemeteries, death, grief, sadness, memories, family - and mcdonald's.


 note:  within another month after these conversations, i learned that "driver" is "travis".