Family and tragedy

I am a little lost for words right now. I am not even sure where to begin, but this is the best way to help me cope with this tragedy in my family.

I received a phone call from my mother earlier this evening after hanging up with her shortly in a chipper conversation. She called me back about 10 minutes later after receiving some news.

On my fathers side of the family, we have lost 2 relatives today who were brothers (who are relatively young late thirties and early forties) due to a shrimp boat going under today in NJ. That side of our family has a large Shrimp/Seafood boating business. There are additional missing bodies as of my last conversation and a couple others are thought to be family members and at least one or two Latino workers. I was told earlier that my cousins did call in a distress signal, but I guess that they could not make it in the water and the temperatures.

The details are very sketchy right now. However, we do know that we lost my two cousins who are their parents only children and they have their own families too.

However, the two brothers (my cousins) who were found by the coast guard did have on life jackets/ cold weather protector suits and that is how they were spotted. We were told they were found floating on boards. One of the brothers had already passed and the youngest one had a light pulse, but was unresponsive, and he passed as well. They were still looking for the other bodies.

I think that I was stunned and in emotional shock when my mother broke the news to me. I did not understand how any of this happened. They called for help, but they did not make it. This is so sad and it is a horrible way for anyone to have to leave this earth.

I was telling someone else that I was trying to wrap up the details for the vacation trip that I was organizing for this summer and we were planning to invite that whole family as well and not just keep it exclusive to our immediate. We are all close and I wanted to add them into the equation this summer because they always have a huge event in Va every September and they include everyone. It just goes to show all of us how we need to treat each day like it is our last day.

This is going to be devastating to the community in NC where they are from with several funerals. This is the same community that my father is originally from. It is difficult for me to understand dealing with this many deaths in one immediate family in my family. At this time all I can do is pray and deal with the grief and know that some of my other family members are grieving even harder.

I may edit/remove this post later just due to it being a large family loss and remaining private.

update:

Two of my cousins are deceased and they are still searching for 4 more members that were on the boat. 1 crew member was found with my cousin and he has survived. We are suspecting at lease 2 more family members are missing as well among the 4 who are missing. Please continue to pray for my family and the immediate family of each of my deceased cousins. Their father has lost both of their sons, and possibly a brother as well. This is a sad day and time to pray.