On Thursday my Uncle Walt passed away. When I was 7 my mother had to be hospitalized for awhile so me and my 4 siblings were divided amongst relative. I was sent alone to my Uncle Walt & his wife, Aunt Mary. They were relatively still newlyweds at the time, not young, not old, just older than young. I lived with them for quite a few months, during the school year.
When I was 13 my family moved to South Florida. My Uncle Walt & Aunt Mary moved down there as well sometime after that. I loved going over to their place, finding peace and a classical sense of life when with them. “Classical” meaning, think “Classical music” as a general form for life. Music of that sort being important, church music, performance of voice, piano, organ, etc. A classy way of living, not base, not stuffy, not rich, not poor. Sane vs. the Insane home that was what I was from.
When I got married I asked my Uncle Walt to play the organ for the wedding. Maybe it would have been nicer for HIM to just attend, but I thought it an honorary position instead of having the stock church organist play. I later became friends with that organist, and he would have been great to have played at my wedding, but I didn’t know him at the time and was more than comfortable with having my uncle play at the event. I have always been glad I made that choice, and even more so today, since he’s gone from this Earth.
I hadn’t seen my uncle for quite a few years. He’s been cremated and I can’t attend his memorial service, and that’s alright. I remember him as a younger man, full of life and love of music and more.
My first big memory of him comes from the one-time I had a sleepover with my Grandma. I was 5 and a night at Grandma’s was a privilege which my older sibs had attained, and I was finally able to do it too. In this instance I had gone over and was in the kitchen with Grandma and my Uncle Walt was there too, eating spaghetti, winding it around and around his fork … he was eating alone because he was “going out” … I was facinated with the spaghetti winding around the fork thing, and there was a sense of energy & importance wrapped around him.
That was my one-time sleepover alone at Grandma’s … she died before I turned 6. When I was just turning or had turned 7 I remember sitting on the front porch of our house and Uncle Walt and his Mary coming up to the house, that exciting energy was emanating from them (getting married!) — who would have known that we’d be moving to another area of PA in just a few months, and that my Mom would be unavailable to us by the end of the year so we’d all be moved around the extended family, and I ended up having the wonderful experience of Uncle Walt and Aunt Mary all to myself! I suppose it’s my sort of thing from the start, part of a whole but very separate mostly. I loved them dearly. I hope to hug them both someday again.
Our beautiful 16-year old cat Princess Sonia just died. She’d become lighter in weight this last year as well as older looking. Yesterday I felt bad for her when I saw her and realize she wasn’t doing good, but she did rally quite a bit and looked like she might just be dehydrated … but that was only the rally before death. This morning she had eaten and drank water, my 10-year old daughter said, then later she checked up on her and found her not able to move, and from there it all when downhill until finally around 1pm she started having difficulty breathing in a different sort of way from before and slowed down from there and was dead around 1:10pm to 1:15pm.