Remembering

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my first cousin once removed (he's my mom's cousin & I'm her kid - hence the 'removed' part - I think!)

He's a little older than my parents and he'd been in ill health for about a year, but I was still surprised when I found out this weekend.

In honor of my 'Uncle' Kenny, here's what made him unique.

He called a handful of girls 'George'. Until yesterday, I thought I was the only one, but alas, that is not the case! 'We' made the preacher's speech as he said there was a very special group of girls who could say they were known as 'George'. That made me happy.

He judged sandwiches by how messy they were. He would put a big glob of mayonnaise on the bread and then slap a tomato on it. A really good sandwich would have the juice flowing down his arm. EWWWW!!

He was driving somewhere with his radio turned up very loud when a policeman pulled him over. He turned it down, pulled over, and waited for the cop to come up to the window. The cop came up and apologized for pulling him over saying, "I'm sorry sir. I heard some loud music, but it must have been some kids who pulled off the road." Kenny LOVED that story!

On a sadder note, he could not attend funerals. He would go, and then drive around and around the church where the funeral was being held. When he was in Vietnam, his friend was killed and he got a picture of the friend in his coffin in the mail. From what I hear, he was never able to go to a funeral after that.

He wore overalls everywhere and was just a laid back, casual guy. One thing that was said over and over again at the funeral was that if you needed him to do anything, he dropped whatever he was doing and helped you out.

The funeral was very simple and moving. Being a vet, he had 2 members of the military there and watching them fold up the flag and present it to his wife, Pat, was nice. What was even more moving was watching the Vets who were there tear up when Taps was played.

After the funeral, we all piled back in our vehicles and headed over to the First Baptist Church. In typical southern fashion, there were 2 tables loaded down with food. It was so nice seeing family I hadn't seen in years. There's just something about being with family (even the crazy ones - and some of them are looney!) that is just so calming.

I would be doing just fine and then something would happen and my mom would start to cry and then I would lose it. You can't NOT cry when your mama's crying!

So anyway, to a really sweet guy who never had a bad word to say about anyone and enjoyed the simple things in life - you will be missed and you are loved tremendously.