Uncle Orney

Even if it was not the anniversary my uncle suddenly passed away, it would be a bad day. I am so frustrated now and in need of some medical testing to be done - with no insurance and currently no income. If it waits much longer I might not even be able to work because of not getting treatment if the pain and discomfort continues. I need to get something done before the middle of next week and I'm not sure that will happen.

I spent time looking at my collection of fly fishing bait tails my uncle Herb made. I have them hanging up actually. Jonathan suggested I put my uncle's photo on the canvas showing him making one of the fly fishing tails. I did. It's a nice remembrance. It sharply contrasts with how I felt three years ago when I got the call from my stunned cousin Tom in Washington State that his father died of a massive heart attack. Poor Tom - his mother had passed away just eight month before. We were suprised about Herb's sudden death yet we weren't. He was lonely and missed Joan. He told my mother this only a month or so before. Still, it was a soul searing event for my mother that her brother, with whom she shared a special, soul-mate type of bond, was suddenly gone. She was devastated. The event itself and watching the pain of her grief explod as it did was something I will never forget.

All that happy stuff said, we strive to always remember the good times and there were plenty of those to be had. My uncle Herb was an engineer and a had a sharp wit. His pride and joy, besides his wife Joan, was his son Tom Walls (a redhead like me!), grandson Ian Walls and daughter-in-law Diane. He thought of Diane as his daughter.



Uncle Herb was ornery as a boy. He refused to tuck in his shirt so to ensure that he would keep the shirt tucked in, Grandmom sewed lace to the end of his shirt. It worked.

Oh the stories could fill a book! I am close to my cousin Tom and his wife Diane. I especially their son, my second cousin, Ian. He's now in graduate school in Rhode Island.

Miss you Uncle Ornery. You were a character bar none!