I know that I should know better. After all, I've read Franz's books and have seen all too often the way JWs' normal familial emotions are rendered dead, inactive when one of their family members leaves the religion either through being DFd or by DAing.
Back in October 2001 I sent two gifts to my Uncle and Aunt in Detroit. They stopped having contact with me except for a thank-you letter when I did a similar thing about one year previously. I know that this recent gift was received as the on line UPS tracking link showed the recipient's last name. It was theirs. [The tracking doesn't show the first names or initials.]
Today, I decided to do some checking on family lineage. For some reason, I decided to plug in my Uncle's name on a social security records database. I found my Uncle. [First, last name, middle initial, date of birth, and zip code all matched.] What also was there was his date of death, May 10, 2001. Coincidentally that was also my deceased mother's birth date.
My uncle became closer to me than my own father, who left our house when I was in high school. It was my uncle who studied with me when I was 18 [my mother was an inactive JW]. His wife, whom he married after I left Michigan, was also a friend of our family. I loved her as well. After all that had been passed, she could've at least given me the common courtesy to let me know that he had passed away five months earlier.
Chalk it up to another heartless characteristic of the JW religion.
Sorry for venting.