SOLC17 4/31 Plus Celebrating A Life

         SOLC17 4/31 Thanks for the March Slice of Life challenge with the Two Writing Teachers community for Day Four of Thirty-One of the Slice of Life Challenge in March.  Thank you, Stacey, Beth, Deb, Betsy, Lanny, Kathleen, Lisa, and Melanie.   
         Today I also celebrate with Ruth Ayres and others at Discover Play Build. It's a good way to end the week sharing our celebrations.

    

               I had a wonderful childhood. Growing up with loving parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles made my life a happy one. My extended family was a big one, and those I saw most often were my mother's side of the family. She had five brothers and sisters, which means ten aunts and uncles! Until I was twelve, I lived in a little town in mid-Missouri and many relatives lived there too. Then my family and one aunt and uncle moved to the Kansas City area. We lived across the street from Aunt Carol and Uncle Caryl and their children, my cousins. By the time I was grown, they moved again to another neighborhood, this time next door to each other.  The two families were very close and I am still in touch with those remaining, all the cousins now grandparents as I am, living lives I don't know much about anymore. I did have one evening with them last summer, catching up as much as we could about the lives we live now. 

          This week, the last of those ten siblings and siblings-in-law passed. My Uncle Caryl. I'm celebrating his life with a few memories today. He was a very special uncle. Many happy hours stay in my memory of him.  Here are a few of them. 
         I remember him playing croquet and volleyball with all of us kids. He spent endless hours having fun with us when I now know he probably had other grown-up things that needed doing. 
        He took the time during some of the summers to rise early and take me into the city to teach me how to play tennis.  (There were no tennis courts nearby.) I was seven years older than my brother and even more years older than my uncle's children, so was a teen in a sea of kids. It was a gift that he took the time to teach me a game just for me.
        He showed me that one can have fun in the smallest of things. Often our families got together for what Uncle Caryl called Sunday's Silly Suppers. He made a huge celebration of making the best and the tastiest chocolate milkshakes in the mixer. That and popcorn became our Sunday treat every week.  
        When I went to college, my Uncle Caryl wrote me throughout that first year. They were little notes of support, and as I remember, seemed to come at just the right times.

          I'm sure that Uncle Caryl's family will miss him. They all live close to each other, and his passing will leave an empty spot. But I know in theirs, and in my own heart, he will always be remembered with love and appreciation.