Goodbye Uncle EL

I haven't blogged a lot lately. I haven't felt the need or the desire too. And it's not because there's a lack of things to write about.

There's everything to write about.

New people. Old people. People dying. People Living.

Literally, all of the above.

And on some level I feel numb to it.

Last night I got home from hanging out with a certain someone and Sarah and Bobby didn't really say much but both of them kind of trailed me to my room. That's never a good sign.

"Jennifer talked to grandma today, Uncle EL died." I just kind of looked at Sarah and processed it and literally what I wanted to say was, "Oh well..."

That freaked me out. I am sad that Uncle EL died. He was always one of my favorites. He was one of the ten siblings of which my Grandma was a part and he was literally crazy.

He was funny beyond belief, sometimes to the point of making people uncomfortable if they weren't completely familiar with his sense of humor. He always wore his demin overalls. He sang with his sister Carol. When they were in school people thought they were twins. I feel very sad for Aunt Carol, they were so close. He lived "in sin" with the woman named Polly, aka Aunt Polly and no one even cared... out of our crazy, ultra-religious family, no one cared. Because he was Uncle EL.

And I didn't realize he was getting close to 80. That was probably the biggest shock out of all of this. He was in his late 70s. Kind of a wake up call that people are growing older, my grandparents are growing older. My mother was 50, by no means older...but to some people 50 is everything.

And what's more, he died on May 1st, Mama's birthday. (A bad day for Grandma to be sure)

I feel at peace with it. He went "missing" in the woods on April 30th, but the coroner said he actually died May 1st. As soon Sarah told me this something became very clear to me. Mama was EL's favorite niece. I truly believe that she was with him in the woods. That she took him home. I don't think he died some terrible death, I think he simply stepped out into something more. And that Mama got a wonderful birthday present, Uncle EL to keep her company until the rest of us get there.

And in a sense, I feel that maybe this was Uncle EL's last prank. I mean, it DID take a police search party, numerous search dogs, and at last, a helicopter to find him...