Straight razors, bicycling, and mindfulness

It was a sad Friday around here. My uncle, the last of four brothers and sisters on my mother’s side had passed away. We went to the visitation and tried our best to get there early.

It was a chance for us to have conversations with my cousins about their father and the rich life that he had led and the impact that he had had on so many students and other people. He was an educator and the comments from former students had come flooding in on the memorial page. What better testament for any educator.

It was an opportunity to catch up. Like most families, we’ve all picked up and moved to different locations with other commitments and chances to get together are few and far between. Social Media has been a great tool to overcome this.

So, we shared stories and got a little caught up. I do remember the experience with my own and Laurelanne’s parents’ visitations and funerals. You can only take so much and then it gets tedious. We were also cognizant that we were standing in line waiting and then holding up the line ourselves.

After hearing the news, I’ll admit to being a basket case with all kinds of memories coming back. I don’t know how funeral directors, workers, and ministers/priests can do it as a profession. I sure couldn’t.

So, we did make the trip and I’m so glad that I did. It was truly wonderful to catch up a bit with cousins and other relatives. As we viewed the flowers and memorials, I was reminded of a couple of things that I’d completely forgotten or never knew. My uncle was a fan of the straight razor with a big collection of razors and the straps that you’d use to sharpen them. He was also fond of monumental bike rides, even into his 80s, and one of these single trips would be an entire season of riding for some. He was also incredibly logical and that came through as my cousin shared a couple of his ventures. She was so strong.

I didn’t want to leave but I knew that we had to.

I mostly was able to hold myself together for the duration but was a basket case again as we headed out. I needed some way to handle it and my work with mindfulness paid off on a trip to Mitchell’s Bay where I know that he loved to visit. Mitchell’s Bay accommodated.

I make no apologies to myself for being the basket case that I can be at times. When I stop to reflect, I like to think that it’s my way of honouring the best of events and people in my life.

My uncle was most certainly one of them.