It was Christmas of 1997. I had a keyboard with a red speaker and was laying on the living room floor- I remember this day so vividly throughout my life. I loved music and I was discovering that “The Beatles” weren’t just an old band my dad liked- it really was music. My mini key board played “let it be” and I’m sure at six years old I didn’t know all the words, because I remember at one point my Uncle David, who was wearing in a light blue button dressed with his cowboy belt, started to sing along. I tilted my head back and I smiled at him and he gave me a nod like he was going to lead the way for the song. I laid with the speaker close to my ear and he sat next to me, we sang it probably 3 to 4 times before we said any other words to each other. And this is how these things are so hard to write, because how do you put into words a presence that requires never required any?

I loved holidays. The whole family will be together and over the laughter and the rumble you could always hear uncle David’s “and that “across the room, while he told a story that kept everybody captivated. And that is why this is hard, how do you replace those feelings with words?

I Spoke to my sweet uncle on his last days, he reminded me that one year I really wanted this motor cross toy for Christmas, and I was overjoyed when I opened it and it was exactly what I asked for. In replace of the sign from Santa it was signed “love, Uncle David and Aunt Lynn.” He said I ripped open the present give him a big hug and looked at my mom and told her “you don’t need Santa for Christmas you just need to get yourself an Aunt Lynn and Uncle David!”. Aside from all tangible things, he worked hard, with the help of aunt Lynn to fill the heart of any person he loved, with joy. In my 29 years of life I never heard my Uncle David day anything negative about any other human. He was the calm steady man that embraced any room he walked into and never failed to fill it to the ceiling with love.

On my last conversation with my uncle we talked about how the world has gone crazy. And how it’s so easy for it to feel hard sometimes. His analogy was that we drifted so far from loving our neighbors. He told me the only way that I can change that is to teach my children to love everybody as they should, to love the way that the Bible shows you. I told him that was my plan, we shared stories from when I was younger, apologies for the distance in between, but it was like we never skipped a beat and Just like that- I was full of the love that he shared for his family.  

Growing up, my Grandma my Grandpa from my Dad’s side lived in Costa Rica. My Moms parents has passed before I was born. Uncle David was always like my grandpa growing up, perhaps that is a beautiful tribute he played- as the role of the man in my Mothers eyes. As with every passing, we selfishly want them here in the flesh. Although we crave the laughs and the conversations, his presence is too large to ever vanish from the earth. We are so fortunate to have a man who loved with grace, and though he is home with his Mother and his Father, he is still living among all of us. How blessed and how fortunate that he was chosen for our family.

“And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me.
Shine until tomorrow, let it be, let it be”

This day was all about the man I love and miss  So happy you are no longer in pain and running like a 10 year old  
I love you to the moon and back today tomorrow and always  lyn