Uncle Joe

 


    Uncle Joe, my mom's younger brother, passed away early this morning, he was 78. A week ago he suffered a massive stroke, the same type that killed his mother, my grandmother, nearly 37 years earlier. No one was expecting this. 

    We weren't real close to him or his family as they lived in Virginia and didn't visit often. A few times my cousins were sent to stay on the farm for all or part of the summer. I remember we had some good times. We drove out to Virginia to visit them once when I was seven. All I remember was grandma cooking eggs in an electric skillet in out hotel room and seeing a crab on the beach.

    When I graduated from college and got my pharmacist license he made a remark that I was depriving a man of the ability to support his family. It was upsetting to hear him say that. I didn't speak to him for a long time.  I realized much later that the idea of a woman being a pharmacist was an unheard of thing to him. Also I made more money than his sons. 

    Several years ago he and Aunt Wanda came to visit. He wanted to see me and have dinner with me. At the time I was estranged from my family, especially my mother. That didn't matter to him. I am his niece and nothing will change that fact. I am part of the family, even if other family members didn't acknowledge that fact. He was kind to me when others weren't.

    This started several years of comments on Facebook, various things sent through Messenger, texts and a few phone calls. The phones calls were usually around the holidays. For awhile he kept chickens and I liked to tease him about them. He kept asking me when I'd finally get tired of the cold weather and move south. The last time I spoke with him, hew told me that he'd spoken to my mother and she told him that I had taken her out to lunch and she had fun. I told him that I was surprised that she remembered. He confessed that he had heard my dad prompt her. I was always happy to hear from him. 

    The person I feel sorry for is my aunt. This was so sudden. I'm sure she was expecting that they would have many more years to do the things they loved to do. She won't be alone though, there are a lot of family and friends where they live that have reached out to her.

     Eve thought we weren't close, I'm going to miss him. I'll miss his bass voice with the southern accent he picked up. I'll miss the corny jokes he sent me sometimes. I'll miss seeing all the community events he would participate in. Judging from what I've seen online many others miss him too.

JPG

1946-2025



    

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