Uncle Verl

Verl Myers was my Aunt Carol's husband.  When I was little I was so scared of him.  He seemed too tall, too big, too loud and he had a habit of picking me up and tossing me around like I was a feather.  He tickled me, scratched me with his whiskers and laughed when I tried to get away.  I really didn't like him!   Everyone in the Myers family called me Teddy.  The story is that my cousin Jim who is one year older than me didn't say my name right.  I never really thought about being called Teddy, but after Uncle Verl died nobody else called me Teddy and I missed that.  Every once in a while Aunt Carol might call me Teddy, but no one else. Uncle Verl was a hog farmer.  He was also a singer and sang with barbershop quartets. He was a Veteran so he had traveled but he lived in the same community almost all his life.  Cancer took him.  I can't remember who told me the story, maybe my mom or Aunt Carol, but at one doctor visit he complained to the doctor that after working a 12 hour day he was a lot more tired than he should be. He was a farmer and long days are the norm.
At his funeral his barbershop buddies sang and it was beautiful.  It was the biggest funeral I ever attended.  They held it in the community center and there wasn't enough room inside for all the people.  That is what happens when a good man in a small community dies.  He touched so many lives. 

I think it is hard for everyone to imagine the lives your parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles had before you were born.  When we are young we do not think about it, we just accept them and never wonder where they come from and how they became the people we know.  I left home at 18 and did not have a close adult relationship with any of my relatives.  I came to visit 2 or three times each year, enjoyed the short times with my family but that is not the same as being close, living in the same town, seeing folks everyday.  Luckily my mom kept me informed but I long ago lost touch with my cousins' kids and grand kids.