Passing Through

I’m back from being up north for the funeral of my dad’s next-older brother. 

I was quite moved by the service, especially when my uncle’s grandkids got up and spoke about how generous and loving he was and how he was their hero and role model. 

The power point slide show with hundreds of family photos from the 1920’s through today, coordinated with country western music, was also a big hit. 

My uncle lived a varied life, serving in WWII, as a policeman, managing the world’s only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station, and then working at the local paper mill for 20-some years.  When I worked summers at the mill during college, I happened to work on the same crew as my uncle for a while and saw quite a different side of him. His mastery of profanity and wild-abandon forklift driving were awe-inspiring.

Mostly, though, he devoted his life to his family and friends, often randomly selecting someone in his circle as the recipient of one-dozen of his “world’s best” chocolate-chip cookies and then just dropping them by.

I had a chance to see some of my cousins too that I haven’t seen for about 30 years and, damn, are those people getting old!