His brother Leon married my mother in 1974. My first memories of Terry are going to his house who'm he shared with my grandmother and Aunt Shirley. Him and I hit it off big time when we first met! I had a hardtime understanding him and all but thats ok. He was a man of love and compassion!
At the age of 7 or 8 years old my cousins Tommy,Tammy, Brian, Jeff, Lori, Sheena, and Shelly would gather around Uncle Terry to color. This is that one person who taught me how to color inside the lines! If you didnt color inside the lines, he'd let you know in his gibberish! My God above I miss them days. As we got older, I used to laugh my ass off listening to him, Shirley and Grandma argue about bullshit.... It was plain bullshit! Thats all it was. I'm still laughing now as I think about it! Shirley would be pissed because Terry wouldnt do this or that. Terry would be pissed because he would tell Shirley how he did that and this! Then Grandma would get in the middle and tell them both to shut the fuck up! I'm laughing now!
The one thing that will always amaze me is how Terry loved his coffee! My lord he loved to drink coffee! This little shit (5'tall and about 5' around!) would drink cup after cup and wonder if we nieces and nephews wanted a cup. Of course the parents would tell him no.... Wanna know what he did? He'd sneak us cups! The biggest problem with Terry's coffee drinking is that he'd put a half a cup of sugar in the sumbitch! Now we know why he was wired all the time!
As we nieces and nephews got older we started our own families. We brought in our new husbands and wives. Terry greeted all of them with open arms and a smile. God bless you Terry for this! Next thing you know these extended families started having babies of our own. I can remember when I brought my oldest daughter to a reunion as as baby and Terry was infatuated with her. He asks me her name. I tell him it's Cassandra... He smiles and looks at me then says to me in his hairlipped ways.... "Thats a pretty name". This brought a tear to my eyes!
He'd hug my wife along with the other newbies and if one spouse wasnt at a function he'd ask..."Where's she? Where's he?" More smiles are on me now! We'd go to more functions and if he seen a new baby, he'd alwasys say.... :"ahhhhh look at the baby!" He sure loved the children.... Wanna know something? The children loved Terry!
The later years left Uncle Terry in a nursing home along with Aunt Shirley. Even though they loved to argue, (Shirley liked to boss him... Yes, I miss her so much!) they still needed eachother. Granny had left us awhile before they joined the home... Terry looked out for her and Shirley looked out for him.
We lost Aunt Shirley a few months ago. Thats ok... She needed to go home and be with Granny and Grandpa. She also met up with Uncle Don and Uncle Gayle. Family together once again. Last time I seen Uncle Terry I could tell he was tired. He missed Granny, Grandpa and Aunt Shirley. He'd hold my hand and look at me in the eyes and I could tell there was so much love that needed to be spread. I can honestly say when I seen him last I looked at my beautiful wife Melody and told her that Uncle Terry wasnt going to last long.
I can say I hate seeing him go but I love to say that he's on a new journey! From all of the nieces and nephews I want to thank Uncle Terry for everything he has done to influence our lives! You were loved and you will always be in our hearts!
No comments:
Post a Comment