Remembrance

I was going to post something else but then I realized this would be going up May 27.

Which is a sweet girl’s birthday (Hi Libby Lou, I’m not sure if you even remember me, but I wish you the best of birthdays even so!) …

But it is also my Uncle Steve’s birthday.

Uncle Steve left to the company of our Lord more than a decade ago and his wife joined him last year (I think it was last year – COVID has stretched and shrunk time in weird ways). Anyway, relatively recently ago, they were reunited in His care. The time matters less to them now, for they have forever.

So whatever all else I was going to post about can wait. Today I’m remembering Steve and Martha and all the ways they blessed my life. And all the ways I’m missing them still.

And will until I see them again.

It’s going to be Memorial Day this weekend. We will be remembering those who have fallen in the line of duty. We will be honoring their sacrifice. We will remember them and what they fought to preserve. We may think of what it cost them and their loved ones and all the might-have-beens they gave up – for our nation and communities – that we can never know.

My uncle didn’t die during his military service. He signed up for a second tour when he could have gone home so that his brothers wouldn’t get cycled in to the active war zone. So that they might not be killed in action or broken by what war does to body and mind and spirit. They served elsewhere.

But he (and they) made it home from war and he got married and built a home close to both their families, and raised sons he loved with a whole heart and was a second father to nieces and nephews … and from all accounts was a friend and blessing with his easy laugh and sense of humor and his gruff, wise way, to more people than I can name. It was years and years later – precious years to be thankful for, before he lost a different battle, with cancer.

Happy birthday Uncle Steve! I love you! Say Hi to Jesus for me! ❤️ Tell and Aunt Martha and Nana that I miss them. All my best to Uncle Don too, I think of him often. I trust the Lord has you, and them, and the others who have gone ahead of us, in His hand.