Pinnochle: The Curse...?

Thanksgiving was enjoyable as usual - great food, time spent with family, nephew cracking me up... The rest of the weekend went well, too. I got to catch up with friends (Four Christmases with D & Frank, lunch with mom & Sheryl, dinner with Jackie & family and Brian), and also got to play pinnochle with mom, Nan & Kirk. Usually, playing pinnochle makes me happy. This time, it just reminded me of my uncle. And it made me sad. Kirk would call it being in a funk, and usually I would agree. This time, it's more like mild depression. Losing people never gets easy. No matter how much I've been through it, it still hurts, and it hurts differently every time. I find I can't shake the thought that for the rest of my life, I'll keep losing more people. So, there's options... I can opt not to get close to people and miss out on amazing experiences, or I can get close to people and have amazing experiences but have such a void when they are gone. I know...I would probably sense a void with the first scenario, too. But grief makes me wonder which is worse. And maybe there's no answer - maybe they are equally painful.