[Monday 5/24: 3.2 miles; Today: 3.2 miles]
I’ve had a busy week.
I took last Friday as a vacation day and flew to Des Moines. I spent the night at the folk’s house.
Saturday was cold and kind of blustery and I determined I had not brought enough clothing to do a run so I slept in.
Toward mid-day we met with about 30 other people at the Rising Sun Cemetery for an interment of the ashes of Uncle Ron. It was cold and kind of windy with just a bit of snow in the air. I took video which I have posted here.
Cousin Dave gave a bit of a eulogy and eventually everyone repaired to a small restaurant in Pleasant Hill where we sat and talked. People stayed and talked for a long time.
I especially enjoyed my west coast brother who I had not seen in about five years. And I also enjoyed my cousins and aunts/uncles who I don’t see very often.
Uncle Ron was an interesting guy. He was in his early 20’s when I came along. I remember him picking me up and throwing me in the air when I was pretty small. I was terrified! Later, in my teens, we were on vacation and stayed at his house in Boise, ID for a few days.
And more recently he happened to be in Iowa when we were there for the Iowa State Fair and he and my wife and I hung out for a day at the fair.
We spent a little time watching FFA sheep judging. He would pick out the winners by finding the cutest girl in the competition. Frequently he was right!
He was kind of a flirt.
He was cool. I can imagine him reading Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson. I remember being in a conversation with him and he mainly said, “Oh really?” to everything I said. He was a good listener. I think he would have made a good social worker or therapist. I never saw him get angry or over excited about anything.
But he actually worked in construction putting acoustic ceilings in hospitals, schools and other large buildings.
He didn’t have any children that I know of. He had a couple of step sons. I know he was married at least twice.
I learned on Saturday that he had a lot of connections with my other cousins, particularly the ones who regularly go fishing in Minnesota.
He had cancer for quite a while. I think it was in remission at least once but eventually caught up with him and he didn’t want to do the treatments any longer (or so I hear).
Ron is the first of my parent’s generation to go and the 2nd youngest. Some of my other aunts and uncles are starting to get a bit frail. And my cousins are about my age and have children and grandchildren. We lost a nephew and an uncle in infancy. Otherwise I’ve gotten a long way without a lot of tragedy.
My wife’s parents are still with us. That generation on her side has seen the loss of two aunts and one uncle so far.
After all of that, I left Des Moines on Saturday around 3:30 pm driving Uncle Donald’s car (my wife’s uncle). I spent the night in Hannibal, MO, then continued on Sunday and arrived back home around 3 pm. We delivered the car to Uncle Donald and he was excited to have his possessions again which had been loaded up and stored when we brought him down to Mississippi in early January.
I had a good weekend. I enjoyed seeing the relatives and got a lot of hugs.