All of us in my family agree that he was and is our favorite.
What made him so honored within the family?
He wasn't the most playful, or the funniest.
He wasn't the most handsome.
He didn't mince words and he always called a spade a spade.
What made him our favorite was he was the most HELPFUL.
My uncle had an uncanny way of seeing the needs of individuals within his own family, within his extended family, within his neighborhood and within the larger community. Saying little, he went about serving others, even bringing needy people into his home, and since he did carpenter work as a hobby, people benefited from his eyes that saw your needs and his heart that cared.
He just died, on his 98th birthday.
A couple of years ago he went out to his tractor to "get busy".....and forgot how to start it, maybe even what it was for. But he was cared for in his declining years by loving family....who cried when he died.
My aunt picked out this poem for his memorial:
Miss Me- But Let Me Go
When I come to the end of the road,
and the sun has set for me;
I want no rites in a gloom filled room,
Why cry for a soul set free.
Miss me a little-but not too long,
And not with your head bowed low;
Remember the love that we once shared;
Miss me-but let me go
For this is a journey we all must take,
and each must go alone;
Remember the love that we once shared;
Miss me-but let me go
For this is a journey we all must take,
and each must go alone;
It's all a part of the Master's plan,
A step on the road to home.
When you are lonely and sick at heart,
Go to the friends we know;
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds.
Miss me-but let me go.
Since my uncle was so old, and since many friends and family members had already died, it was decided to just do graveside services.
Over two hundred and fifty people showed up to honor him.
Wishing I could have been there,
under the rain clouds,
Riverwatch
