4 Years - For Uncle Jim - Miss You Buddy
For Uncle Jim
I’m not sure that this is breaking news, but there are some members of the Fuzzy family that have some of the following qualities:
Obnoxious, Loud, Wild, Quick-tempered, emotional, boisterous, impatient, emotional and a tad confrontational.
But loving...
...always very loving.
I was speaking to one such member a long time ago when at the age of 12 I helped my Dad make the sauce. I was chopping up onions and garlic when I said to him:
“You know, Uncle Jim is a really good guy.”
Dad agreed, of course, he thought the world of his little brother.
And through the years I thought a lot about that moment.
How had my Uncle, in the middle of the Fuzzy storm, figured it all out?
There are so many distractions along the way. There are way too many temptations in life that can throw you off your game.
Uncle Jim was always able to stay the course.
How’d he do it?
First off, he had a great love of family. He loved his wife, Aunt Sherry, through all of the years, through the thick and thin, and when the chips were down.
He loved his daughters, Jamie and Kristin with every ounce of strength he could muster, and that happened, in spite of the fact that one of them may or may not have had some of that stubborn Fuzzy blood coursing through her veins.
I’m not going to say which one. (Kristin).
He loved his grandchildren, Dom, AJ and Brandon and was a great grandpa. He turned his car into the swim mobile. He called them sucky-thumby- babies. He teased them about playing so much hockey, telling Dom to find two dead ants to play with him.
He loved them for every second of their lives.
Then there was his love of food:
Tripe, calamari, pork chops, pasta and peas, pasta and beans, pork chops, marinara, pasta and broccoli, pork chops, linguine and clams and pork chops.
Are you catching a theme?
And Italian Sausage.
Every three months or so Uncle Jim, Jim and Paulie would get the ball rolling and we would meet to make the sausage.
Every time we showed up the container that Uncle Jim brought to bring his share of the sausage home in, got bigger. This year he had about an 80-gallon cooler.
We would work, eat, have a few beers and laugh.
And the love of family extended through the sadness.
Over the last few years we have lost some extremely well loved members of this family. Jeff, Dad, Aunt Carolyn…and we’ve been reeling.
Uncle Jim was there for all of us.
He called us with a quick joke or a message. He wanted us to keep smiling and keep moving forward, never forgetting the love. He sent me a note one day that said simply, “I miss my bro today.”
I called him on the phone and before long we were talking about food. Know, with all your heart that he wants every single person here to smile and laugh as much as you can with the time you have.
I know he does.
We talked about it.
Uncle Jim also used faith in God above to fashion his great personality.
His personality traits should be studied at the greatest universities in the world and taught to the general public.
I was in church one time and Uncle Jim was working as an usher. He called himself Frank Barone from the Everybody Loves Raymond Show.
And there was more love.
Sometimes I referred to Uncle Jim as Uncle Billy Joel and he enjoyed that because he always told me that he ‘got his Christie Brinkley’.
And he really meant it.
We should all love our spouses in such a manner.
And there was more family.
Every June the 2 was cause for celebration and happy phone calls were made all through the family. June the 2 should be a national holiday from here on out.
And Uncle Jim believed in heaven and heaven is a better place now. He knew that the way to get there was to work hard, have faith in God’s plan, and eat a good meal.
No more chicken!!! (Sorry, Aunt Sherry)
Uncle Jim battled through a lot of tough times. Certainly things weren’t always smooth, but he battled through, day after day and hour after hour.
He didn’t feel sorry for himself.
He never put it on someone else.
Instead, he forged ahead and asked us to join him in love.
The sadness that we feel now is the price that we have to pay for spending so much time in Uncle Jim’s loving embrace.
We don’t have to feel the separation because he is with us.
He always will be with us.
And back when I was 12 years old, I was completely wrong.
Uncle Jim wasn’t just a good guy.
He was a great man.
And we should all be honored that God allowed us to share his kingdom of days.
I’m not sure that this is breaking news, but there are some members of the Fuzzy family that have some of the following qualities:
Obnoxious, Loud, Wild, Quick-tempered, emotional, boisterous, impatient, emotional and a tad confrontational.
But loving...
...always very loving.
I was speaking to one such member a long time ago when at the age of 12 I helped my Dad make the sauce. I was chopping up onions and garlic when I said to him:
“You know, Uncle Jim is a really good guy.”
Dad agreed, of course, he thought the world of his little brother.
And through the years I thought a lot about that moment.
How had my Uncle, in the middle of the Fuzzy storm, figured it all out?
There are so many distractions along the way. There are way too many temptations in life that can throw you off your game.
Uncle Jim was always able to stay the course.
How’d he do it?
First off, he had a great love of family. He loved his wife, Aunt Sherry, through all of the years, through the thick and thin, and when the chips were down.
He loved his daughters, Jamie and Kristin with every ounce of strength he could muster, and that happened, in spite of the fact that one of them may or may not have had some of that stubborn Fuzzy blood coursing through her veins.
I’m not going to say which one. (Kristin).
He loved his grandchildren, Dom, AJ and Brandon and was a great grandpa. He turned his car into the swim mobile. He called them sucky-thumby- babies. He teased them about playing so much hockey, telling Dom to find two dead ants to play with him.
He loved them for every second of their lives.
Then there was his love of food:
Tripe, calamari, pork chops, pasta and peas, pasta and beans, pork chops, marinara, pasta and broccoli, pork chops, linguine and clams and pork chops.
Are you catching a theme?
And Italian Sausage.
Every three months or so Uncle Jim, Jim and Paulie would get the ball rolling and we would meet to make the sausage.
Every time we showed up the container that Uncle Jim brought to bring his share of the sausage home in, got bigger. This year he had about an 80-gallon cooler.
We would work, eat, have a few beers and laugh.
And the love of family extended through the sadness.
Over the last few years we have lost some extremely well loved members of this family. Jeff, Dad, Aunt Carolyn…and we’ve been reeling.
Uncle Jim was there for all of us.
He called us with a quick joke or a message. He wanted us to keep smiling and keep moving forward, never forgetting the love. He sent me a note one day that said simply, “I miss my bro today.”
I called him on the phone and before long we were talking about food. Know, with all your heart that he wants every single person here to smile and laugh as much as you can with the time you have.
I know he does.
We talked about it.
Uncle Jim also used faith in God above to fashion his great personality.
His personality traits should be studied at the greatest universities in the world and taught to the general public.
I was in church one time and Uncle Jim was working as an usher. He called himself Frank Barone from the Everybody Loves Raymond Show.
And there was more love.
Sometimes I referred to Uncle Jim as Uncle Billy Joel and he enjoyed that because he always told me that he ‘got his Christie Brinkley’.
And he really meant it.
We should all love our spouses in such a manner.
And there was more family.
Every June the 2 was cause for celebration and happy phone calls were made all through the family. June the 2 should be a national holiday from here on out.
And Uncle Jim believed in heaven and heaven is a better place now. He knew that the way to get there was to work hard, have faith in God’s plan, and eat a good meal.
No more chicken!!! (Sorry, Aunt Sherry)
Uncle Jim battled through a lot of tough times. Certainly things weren’t always smooth, but he battled through, day after day and hour after hour.
He didn’t feel sorry for himself.
He never put it on someone else.
Instead, he forged ahead and asked us to join him in love.
The sadness that we feel now is the price that we have to pay for spending so much time in Uncle Jim’s loving embrace.
We don’t have to feel the separation because he is with us.
He always will be with us.
And back when I was 12 years old, I was completely wrong.
Uncle Jim wasn’t just a good guy.
He was a great man.
And we should all be honored that God allowed us to share his kingdom of days.
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