At 3:41 this morning, I said good bye to my Uncle John. I am amazed at where all my newly-found strength is coming from. Uncle John has been comatose for the last 48 hours. He was totally unresponsive tonight except for when I said goodby and told him that I loved him. His eyes partly opened, and I thought I felt him lightly squeez my hand. and when his lips quivered I thought he was going to speak but the sound of his voice was never heard--will never be heard again. I held his hand as I told him that I loved him and that he was my best buddy and that he had always been my best buddy. I talked to him about the pranks that we had played on each other and on others over the years. The times we shared working side-by-side in the corn fields, and in the cain fields, and splashing in the old swimming hole with a cake of ivory soap after a long day of working the hay fields in the hot son. The snow-ball fights on Saturdays. The marble games. The horse shoe games. So many little things that didnt seem to matter at the time, had just become epic sagas. For me my last conversation with Uncle John was a walk into our past, but Im not certain that he was sharing it with me. He took me squirrel hunting when I was about 11-12 yrs old (my first squirrel hunt). I weighed about 80 lbs (very skinny). We were sitting on a big rock about 5 or 6 feet high off the ground when we saw a squirrel playing in the trees. He was laughing when he handed me his 12-guage shotgun and let me have the first shot. The kick from that shotgun knocked me off the rock (as he knew it would) and I landed on the ground below. Uncle John couldnt stop laughing......during the remainder of the day he couldnt stop laughing, LOL. And he would still laugh until this day when he would relate the story. He felt, no doubt, that he been the one who led me through my first rite of passage and he was really proud of himself. A poor kid born into poverty. Lived throughout life in poverty. He never owned anything, never wanted anything, never achieved anything, but he held a special place in the hearts of all who knew him. It was all he ever wanted just to be accepted and appreciated. All of you who knew him can attest to this truth. He was my Uncle John.....He was my Friend....He was my best Buddy. He was the epitome of what Uncles are supposed to be. Goodbye, Uncle John. When you meet my Mother tell her I Iove her.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:40:10 +0000
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