when you visit the last remaining elder in the family... my father's brother... whom i have grown up knowing since a baby... once the funny, offbeat character that i always loved to be with.... but who grew into a bit of an awnry person with a hot temper.......
a man who lived austere.. never owned a car. lived in the same one bedroom apartment for 50 years or more..... eats a lot in diners..... yet a huge philanthropist, on lots of boards and with friends in all the high places, but he lost his sense of ease, so serious all the time.... and became critical of so much around him...he has told us he has given all his money to charity, which is amazing.
i adored him through my 30's, admired him.. he travelled to places no one dared to go back in the 50's and 60's.....he'd go off to guinea or places i never heard of .and brought back color slides that we would sit and watch listening to these fabulous stories.... i think he helped to create that wonder lust in me.......
i bring him food.... sit for an hour or so.. i told him he lived the longest of his brothers and parents, and then he responded that my dad lived to 210 years old... and as quickly as he said that he drifted back to the present and a totally meaningful conversation of present politics....
sweet and sour... i visit each time thinking it's the last of my great uncle marshall.......i have to call today and plan another visit.....
i found this cabinet photo of my grandmother and told him how much i loved it and he offered it to me...
life moves on.. lives come and go.. and the history of your family with it.... he is the last to ask questions of.. but his memory is in and out....
