In Memoriam: Uncle Bill

It sucks to get old. It has nothing to do with the fact that some of your parts and pieces don't work quite like they used to or that the brain cells don't work quite as fast as they once did. No, instead it has to with losing people you love.



As anyone who has followed this blog knows, we were always a close family on my father's side. And, as you know sometimes I dwell a little too much on the past, but they were good times. For me, when I was a kid, life was good, it was comfortable. We had a roof over our heads and food on the table and there was enough love in the family to go around. It wasn't up to me if the mortgage could be paid or the car insurance or anything else, I was a kid and that was something the adults worried about. I guess that's why I think a lot of those days, knowing I can't physically go back, at least I can mentally.

We lost my Uncle Bill last night. He has always been my favorite uncle. He was the one who always had the jokes to tell, who was always the quickest to laugh and to always be the first to help. When we were growing up his family constantly moved around because of his work so we didn't see them as much as my other aunts and uncles, but usually every summer they would come here to the little house on the lake for either the Fourth or Labor Day.

I am sure everyone has different memories, some good, some maybe not so good, of people, it is only normal. We keep the good and forget the not so good. The thing I remember about Uncle Bill and Aunt Pauline, is they were just nice people. Maybe they were just products of the time, I am sure growing up in the Depression and WW2 had an effect on those of that generation, maybe it shaped them in a certain way. I don't know, but they were just nice people. And the other thing I remember even more than that is like my Mom and Dad, they had a genuine love for each other. You could see it whenever they were together. "Through sickness and in health, through good times and bad" definitely meant something to them.

Uncle Bill had been sick for the last few years, he had a stroke and lost his ability to talk. The last time I saw them he could still communicate, with hand signals, but Aunt Pauline knew what he was saying, that comes with spending your lives together and knowing your partner as if you are one. Like when my Mom died before my Dad, Aunt Pauline is going to miss him. A major part of her life is gone. I too, an going to miss him.

Goodbye Uncle Bill, say hello to my Mom and Dad won't you? I am sure he is waiting for you at the grill.