Losing a Relative...

I learned on August 5th that my uncle Len passed away in 2004. I don’t know – for some reason I felt this morbid urge to search the obits on the internet. My mother and I have been estranged for some years now and I figured I probably would never know she’s gone unless I read it in the paper. So I searched for her name and found nothing. Then I decided to search for my uncles, her brothers. And Len’s name came up. He was in his mid-seventies and did have a heart condition, so it came as no surprise, yet it hit me like a brick.

He lived in Arizona since 1976 and he and my mom became estranged after their dad, my grandfather, passed away a in the mid-eighties.

I feel sad that I didn’t know my uncle better and that I didn’t keep in touch with him. He pretty much walked out of our lives after he and my mom stopped talking. He was always my favorite uncle – very happy marching to the beat of his own drum – quite a free spirit – in fact, in his obituary, they listed his nickname as "Outlaw". That’s Len.   I’m sorry we weren’t closer. I'll have to see what I can do to locate my 4 cousins. One was listed in Colorado, two in Arizona and one in California. I thought how cool it would have been to hook up with my cousin in San Diego when I was out there last summer.  So much for lost opportunities you don't know about until they are over.