I just heard from my sister that my brother-in-law's brother died in Iraq last week. I didn't know him very well personally, but my sister and brother-in-law are quite shaken up about it. He was in his early 20's... I guess there was a landmine or something...

The worst thing is, they just got married last weekend, so the news of his death came just after the wedding. These first few weeks after marriage should be an especially happy time for them, but instead they're dealing with loss.

All I can say is, that sucks horribly.

That's horrible.

RIP.

That's awful.

At first I thought you meant that the brother had only just gotten married, which would be horrific.

Yeah, the brother was unmarried. I guess I didn't really make that clear.

However, one of the things that makes this scary is that my sister's husband is also in the military and has a good chance of shipping out some time in the next 6 months (they got married sooner than they'd planned because of this), so my sister's now more afraid something could happen to him.

Very sorry to hear.

Why is the root word of casualty casual?

That's quite unfortunate. I hope everything turns out well.

It comes from casual's original meaning of "accidental."

I'm sorry to hear that Sarn. It's something that a few of my good friends have had to deal with "over there."