A letter...

Dear Uncle Walter,

I think about you all the time, but I especially thought of you tonight.  I got up the nerve to take Alyssa out driving.  She's 19 and she wants her license.  As I was sitting there in the passenger seat, I remembered you taking me out driving at the age of  21 when no one else would.  I was thinking about you and your laugh and your jokes and that beloved Brooklyn accent.  I was tempted to open the window of the car and "mooooo" out of it, but we weren't on a deserted country road, and I didn't know what Alyssa's reaction would be....so I refrained.  I thought about you this weekend, when I picked up and dropped off Alyssa's friend who was visiting.  She came by train...and sitting in the train station brought back so many memories of you and I thought about all your years working on the railroad....and your collection of train paraphernalia.  I guess it's no coincidence that the first place you took me driving was down by the train station.  I remember you talking my ear off about how there used to be a working train station there, as I, white knuckled and hunched over the steering wheel, sped along at 10 miles an hour.

Today is not your birthday or any other special day, it's jus an ordinary, every day, but I was thinking about you and I just thought I would tell you.  It seems like the days that I grew up were simpler ones....and you were always a part of them.  You were there from the time I was a little girl taking me on my first "date" and buying me my first"drink"....you were there as I grew up always supporting me...and always there with a new joke.   I'll always remember the one and only time I had the punch line that made you speechless.  I don't think I ever said thank you for all you were to me, I know you never expected one.  I am so thankful......for having you as  such an important person and loving me and making my life richer.  I know you are in a good place now,  with no more pain, sitting around drinking some beers and telling jokes and stories to a lot of gorgeous angels... all sitting around you.  That thought makes me smile...but it doesn't make me stop missing you..

"How will I be remembered by my children? This is the true measure of a man."

~ Brian Herbert