Uncle Rich

 

     He was Linda's brother-in-law and uncle to my kids and grandkids, to me he was just Rich. For a while we even worked for the same company.

     It all started when I married Linda, I not only gained a wife, I gained another set of siblings in her two younger sisters who in turn got married and created brothers in laws. Not only did my sibling family increase it grew into a following so to speak. When Linda and I moved to Tennessee, after the Navy, Eileen soon moved with us. When I went to work for a company in California, Eileen followed us and went to work for me, then she transferred back to Georgia when I did and went to work for me again. In the meantime, Vicki moved to Tennessee and lived with Eileen where she met Rich. Eventually we all wound up in Georgia and Rich went to work for the same company as an installer of telephone booths.

     I always liked Rich, Linda thought the world of him. He was likeable, smart and a hard worker, he was fun to be around but like most of us, he had problems. Rich had a habit of making some bad choices that effected his life. He liked to take a drink on more than a few occasions, to be blunt, Rich was an alcoholic and grew to be more so with age.

     A couple of times he was stopped for drinking while driving and on at least on occasion he spent a couple of weeks in jail and lost his license for a year. He had to hire someone to drive him around to his jobs.

     I remember when he got out of jail, he came in to my office and sat down across from me. He told me that being in jail was the most humbling experience of his life and if ever I saw him climbing into his vehicle when he had been drinking I had his permission to kick his butt. He sounded sincere but it didn't last. At one point, Vicky ask me to talk to him about his problem, I tried but he became aggravated and didn't want to hear what I had to say. Having had an alcoholic father I knew what he was going through but all I could say was OK but if you keep this up you will loose everything, he eventually did.

      After he and Vicki split up, Rich worked at jobs that paid him under the table then a few years ago he started to have some health problems. With no insurance, he went to the VA for his health coverage, at that time I thought he looked pretty bad but he went on the mend but he didn't change his ways. I talked to Rich a couple of times in the last two years, every time I could tell he had been drinking, he couldn't understand why he was having all of his problems. I tried to keep in touch but my messages went unanswered.

     Vicki and Chelsa called me the other day, Rich passed away in his sleep the night before.

     I'm going to miss Rich, he was family, my family and I have lost too many of my family in the last few years. Even with his problems his passing hurts and leaves an empty place in my heart. Fair winds and calm seas my brother.