A Monkey & An Uncle

This has been a rather difficult couple of weeks.  Sunday the 8th was very emotional.  We celebrated the life of my brother Steven.  It was the strangest thing to celebrate his life and then go eat at the same place we did after his wedding 14 months ago. I keep thinking this is all but a bad dream.  How could my little brother be gone so suddenly?  I brought home a Curious George soft toy that belonged to him.  It was his favorite character growing up and each of my three kids got one from him when they were very young.  My aunt got my brother into Curious George as a child and forever made jokes with him about the man in the big yellow hat. The George I brought home was not Steve’s first.  That one, a 40+ year old soft toy was with him in the casket and according to his wife would be going all the way with Steve.  George’s presence in the casket was probably the most emotional visual for me as it brought back memories of our childhood.  George was with my brother through his hospital stays when he was five and had open heart surgery. It was fitting that he would be there with Steve in the end.

Now we are heading up north to see family for the holidays.  We will spend Christmas with Jane’s family and then New Year’s with mine.  We planned this in part to be able to spend time with Steve and we were really looking forward to it.  Steve mentioned to a friend in the hospital room the day before he passed away that he was really looking forward to our visit over the holidays.  It will be difficult not to see him walking into my mom’s place with a big smile on his face and humorous greeting for my kids (he was their “silly” uncle).