Uncle Mike

My Uncle Mike died on Sunday~ He was my favorite uncle~ He was such an influence on me when growing up. He and my Aunt Carol were the only ones close to me, that had been married in the temple. Uncle Mike was a welder, and worked on the Alaska Pipeline for several years. He would be gone for weeks at a time, and while gone write love letters to my aunt. I always thought it was so cute, she'd read us parts of his letters, then tell us the rest was just for her~ My aunt died 4 years ago, and he's missed her terribly. He had developed "alltimers"  and a good deal of the time, didn't know where my aunt was. In fact he thought she'd left him at times~ He had a stroke, and prior to dying, was fully lucid--he talked about how much he missed her, and could hardly wait to see her. My cousin told him, that he was going to receive a lot of grief from my aunt when he joined her, and he said " I know, and I've missed it so much"~ It makes me sad that he's gone, even though I know it's what he wanted. Still it's the end of a generation, and I know that probably my father will be next~ I'm NOT ready for that~ And I'm sure he isn't anxiously waiting to join my mom, since they were divorced~ Awww---Life goes on~