In memory of... Uncle Charlie

     Friday, November 20, 2015 will now be added to my personal calendar as a day I look to heaven and smile while a tear(s) gently rolls down my cheek...Uncle Charlie has passed away.  My most heartfelt condolences and love go out to Aunt Joan and all the cousins and their families on this day. I have personally felt the pain of losing my Dad, and no matter how old someone is, the pain and loss still comes.  Charlie lived to be 93 years young and went peacefully under hospice care, leaving behind some wonderful memories that I thought were lost in the Rolodex of my addled brain, but have resurfaced as I write this...

     I remember the station wagon with the Iowa plates in the driveway, signalling a visit from Uncle Charlie and Aunt Joan and an always changing number of cousins...I thought at the time it was a major inconvenience...(jerk!) but I always missed them when they left.  It wasn't until I was older that I finally appreciated my cousins and the wonderful people that brought them into the world.  I remember visiting Iowa on the family vacation...(now THAT was a major inconvenience! But only in the travelling sense).  Cramming the parents, three kids, and Grandma into the car and pulling a trailer behind it while touring the great Midwest was not my idea of a treat.  But when we got to Iowa and got to stay at the "mansion" now that was a massive treat...I loved that old house with the carriage house and porches and multiple levels...(I got to sleep on the top floor with the pool table! Very cool!).  The dinners, simple and always delicious, and the stories that we heard about growing up and life "back in the day"...

     I remember reconnecting with the cousins, especially Beck...(similar age, similar situations at the time) and it was mostly from her that I learned about Charlie's war experiences...shot down over Germany in WWII and spending a year as a prisoner of war.  I remember that Charlie didn't talk about that much and Beck said she had a hard time getting any of his friends to open up about it.  I can only imagine how horrific the experience must have been...

     I remember visiting Fort Loudon when Joan and Charlie sold the house in Iowa and going back in time...(as a history lover, it was an incredible place).  It was built in the 1800's with the front of the house right on the road (for the horse and buggy to pull up to) and the backyard stretching far...(with the outhouses, of course)  It had a cistern for collecting rainwater and a pump to fill up the buckets for indoor water use.  They modernized it since then with indoor plumbing and water, but the rooms spoke of the olden days where the kitchen and "parlor" dominated the other rooms.  It was here that I learned how my grandmother had her kids...Charlie born in the kitchen by the stove (it was December) with a midwife and Mom in the outdoor outhouse in July by herself.  It was these stories that I wanted to hear.  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed talking with Charlie...he was extremely intelligent (professor and dean of a college in Iowa) and deeply religious.  I remember reading his newsletters about the Bible each month and marveled about his passion and love for God.  I always felt that Charlie had a "special" relationship with God and that if God ever had a close circle of friends, Charlie would be one of them...

     I remember the reunion on Ruby Ridge (inside joke)...especially traveling with my extremely pregnant sister at the time.  All of Charlie's nine (9!) kids were there and it was an absolutely unforgettable trip.  The man-made lake...(thanks to the devastating flood in the Midwest), the water slide and floating platform, the stories and more stories and just being able to connect with that side of the family again.  A plethora of nieces, nephews, 2nd cousins, grand-kids and great grand-kids have come to pass since then but the memories will live on...

     And that is how I will end this tribute...the memories of loved ones should be shared and nurtured and passed down from person to person and generation to generation...Charlie had a magnificent life and his family is living proof of that...he helped raise (most of the credit to Aunt Joan, of course) nine exceptional people, who in turn are raising exceptional people of their own.  I am proud to be able to be included in that family tree and proud to be related to each and every one of them...I share the loss of Uncle Charlie, but I rejoice in his reunion with God.  I look forward to sharing many more memories and hope someday to earn the right to see him again.  Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace... Amen.  God bless the family and especially Aunt Joan as they navigate through this time...