I gotta pay props to my uncle that passed away Saturday.

[Dale Smith]

Just buried an uncle last month: his "40 Day" Mass is next week(Greek Orthodox Ritual). He and Dad blued a lot but hey; family is family. Cousins have been quite thankful of our support.

Greg

Sorry to hear that, Greg...........thankfully your cousins have you to lean on. They might need more support until they come to grips. You are a good man.

 

[Dale Smith]

Uncle toad? I had two Uncles, one that fought in the pacific, ( NAVY) then committed suicide, another that was a cook in WWII ( Marines), going to Korea and he moved on ended up at the Chosin Resevoir and survived, he was one hell of a man. My dad was wounded in WW2 at Attu, in the Northern Pacific. He was a hell of a guy. He sold his purple heart to feed us, but that's different story.

Sounds like you had great uncles as well. People were sure tougher back then than they are today........I guess it's because they had to be. I would be interested in hearing the story of the purple heart either here or in a private message. I love real people and the stories that they have to share and what they can teach me.

Hugs ya.

 

[Dale Smith]

I am sorry for you. Losing loved ones is so hard and so painful. Your uncle had a full life filled with love and joy. Bless his soul.

My Uncle Toad had a full life because he found contentment and joy in simple things that money couldn't buy. He loved going to Traders Village, this MASSIVE flea market in Grand Prairie, Texas and finding tools, rod and reels that he could repair or a good bargain on a bicycle that he could repair and fix up and then give it away to a kid. He thought every child should have one. He would sand paper the old paint off of them, prime it and then repaint it. Each bike was a work of art. He would replace the seat if it was worn and put on new inner tubes ( or patch them if the rubber wasn't old) and replaced the tires. That was his hobby when it was too cold to fish or it wasn't hunting season. He put a smile on the face of many a youngster. I later found out that he never had a decent bicycle growing up back in those days.

He embraced his nickname even though others might have resented it....but he was unpretentious and he actually got a kick out of it and he was one tough man. I didn't even know his real first name until after I was in my teens. He was loved and respected by all that knew him and that was all that mattered to him.

 

[MaryL]

I have to give shout out to Korean war vets. We haven't forgotten you.When Christmas rolls around Uncle Howard.

 

[MaryL]

My uncle Howard, how little I understood him till I saw a recent documentary about the horrors of Chosin and the cold and the powers of plain old human survival, and the plain stupidity of American military become so apparent. Damn.

 

[Stratford57]

Thank you all for the kind words for my Uncle Toad. It's been hard to get him off my mind since I learned he passed. I have to correct something though. It was my Uncle JN (James Noah) that was on the same ship (not a platoon) that gave my future uncle my Aunt Annette's address so they could write. My Uncle Raymond was in WWII...went in when he was 18. I called him today so I could get the story straight. His voice always sounds just as strong and the same way that I always remembered. He told me that when Uncle JN showed Robert a picture of my Aunt Annette in 1953? He said "I'm gonna marry that lady".....two years later, he did and it lasted 62 years. Before he and my aunt moved back to Pampa, Texas to retire in 2002, he asked me to bring my kids up to his house by the lake and we would all go fishing and that his boat was always "good to go" but yet I never made the time.

The last time I saw any of my aunts and uncles was when my Uncle JN passed away two months after my mom died in 2001. I got busy with life trying to raise my own kids and always said that I needed to get to Pampa, Texas and see them all...or get to Austin to see Uncle Raymond. The occasional phone call here and there doesn't really take the place of a visit. I guess what I am trying to convey is "Don't be that guy" (me) that took his aunts and uncles for granted....especially if they were even a tenth as good to you as mine were to me.

What an amazing love story.

Also I have a lot of respect to the people who are handy men (and women), I mean are able and know how to work with their hands (seems to sound kinda awkward in English, I'm sorry). It also sounds like your uncle was one of those people who give a lot of themselves to the other people. It's so sweet to be around such people. I'm very sorry for your loss.