Uncle Rob

Last Tuesday, Chris' Great Uncle Rob passed away. He was one month away from his 93rd birthday.

Chris' favorite story about Uncle Rob: After serving in the military, Rob developed a drinking habit. At one point, a doctor told him that if he didn't stop drinking, he would soon die, and even if he did stop, the damage he had done to himself had probably shortened his life expectancy considerably. Rob quit cold turkey. He kept an unopened bottle of liquor around that he put under the Christmas tree every year as a reminder. Apparently, he was healthy enough otherwise that the years of drinking didn't have too much of a negative effect.

Uncle Rob had a hobby of sculpting things out of styrofoam. Grandma's shelves are full of characters all carefully carved and hand-painted out of the delicate material. He had to give that up in his last years, however, as his hands and eyes quit cooperating.

I have to admit that I was a little worried about taking the young ones to a funeral. I remember too vividly at the age of five, being afraid of seeing my grandfather's white-robed, dead body propped up in the funeral home's window case. Instead of facing realityand telling my mother what I was afraid of, I just told her I didn't want to go in, and waited, curled up on the floorboard of the back seat of the car. Of course, I realize that I shouldn't project my fears onto my children, and it would be good for my kids to experience death as a part of life at an early age. It was a closed casket, so the kids didn't actually get to see Uncle Rob, but Chris explained that the coffin held his body and that we would bury it in the ground. Finley wanted to bring shovels.

The funeral was small, only family attending. As some opening music played, Finley lightened the mood by tooting loudly. Twice.