In loving memory of Uncle John

There are only a handful of people who come into your world, and touch your life in a dramatic fashion. Some of the people are just flickers of light during a long life, while others are a consistent glow through the years. Uncle John - I would term him as a consistent glow in my life since he’s always been around as far as I can remember. He’s a fellow church member, family friend as well as our reliable repairman.

I used to see him around a lot when I was younger because he would be the answer to everything that went wrong in my parents’ home. He was the first person we would call when something wasn’t working or a fixture addition was required. So it wasn’t strange that even after I got married, Uncle John continued to be the “answer” to everything that went physically wrong in the house be it a plumbing issue or a shift of built in cabinets or wiring repairs.

And there is a reason for this….out of about thousands of people that have the skill set to fix things or come up with practical household solutions, why is that I (as well as many others in this room tonight) have always called Uncle John?

For me, it is simply because he was trustworthy and reliable. I know that whenever I call, Uncle John would come and help me solve it. He would provide us with correct identification of the problem, choices of solutions at reasonable prices. We always left our house keys to him and went to work. And that may seem like something trivial to some. But to me, that speaks out qualities such as honesty and integrity. In all my years of knowing Uncle John, he has always been very mild tempered and pretty good natured.

I still remember when I was pregnant with my daughter - Uncle John told my husband that I had to be careful not to go smell cement as cement had a lot of bad chemicals which would badly affect the baby. So this man who was the handyman eventually became a personal family friend.

So tonight I stand here and have to be honest that it will be strange to live without having the ability to pick up the phone and call this reliable family friend ever again. Uncle John’s sudden passing saddens me greatly. However, I take heart to know that one day I will meet him again in heaven.