Uncle Finn

This post will ramble.


Many things are easy to remember about my Uncle Finn.  Tall, average to slim build.  Strong.  Farmer strong, the kind with endurance to spare.  Mechanically savvy, able to take apart and fix anything he had the tools for.  Woodworker, handyman, etc.  Christian, but not in the thou shalt not way, more in the lead by example way.

He has been in my life as long as I can remember, even though we never lived in the same town, except  for two years in the 80's.  And now every time I see him, he fades.

He still has a playful humour, but is no longer an active person.  He needs help standing up, and really needs to use a walker, but has the idea that a walker will make him dependent on it for mobility, no matter how many people try to tell him it will help his mobility.  Stubborn guy that uncle of mine.

Proud of all his family.  He will complain about his kids and other descendants a bit, but he also brags about them a lot.  His love for his brother and sister is at the core of him and what he thinks family is all about.

He taught me that a tool that can only do one thing is a lousy tool, and that a craftsman who can only use a tool one way is a lousy craftsman.

He taught me that friends are earned, and family means a lot, but friends who are family are the most important people in the world.

Somewhere in side the shell he is, a light comes forth and I am talking to the man I always knew, one who is engaged in the world and loves the people who surround him, but that man is getting harder to find.  He is slowly being replaced by a man sitting in the corner, nodding and smiling but not really engaging.  It has  been years since he could be trusted behind the wheel of a car.  Years, maybe even more than a decade, since he last held a saw and made something new.

But.

He still knows me.

His whole face still lights up whenever a friend or family member drops by for coffee.

He does his best to entertain.

He loves his sister.

He misses his brother even more than I miss my dad.

He still makes me happier to see him than sad about what he used to be.