Rest in peace, Uncle Larry

I don't know how far you can judge a man by his obituary, but my uncle got a pretty impressive one in the local paper today. He died yesterday morning in his sleep, after a very short bout with a brain tumor. (CCFOAD, by the way, for those readers who also hang out at the Pint Place.) If you didn't know, you'd never have guessed that he was 80. When my folks moved to town about ten years ago, he was the one who kept lugging furniture long after his juniors had collapsed on the floor.

Larry is also a large part of the reason that this area isn't depressed like so many other rural counties in the west. When the air base closed in 1964, he was one of the guys who jumped on the chance to make an international airport out of it and attract industries that otherwise wouldn't have even thought about coming to Moses Lake. He supposedly retired 25 years ago, but that was just for show. I never saw a man as involved as Larry. Everything he turned his hand to seemed to prosper, to the benefit of everyone around him.

But all that is secondary. Larry was first and foremost one hell of a nice guy. He's my great-uncle; his sister was my grandmother. Thing is, there are no genes connecting us, because it's actually my stepfather's family. From them, though, I learned that "step" is a null concept in families. The moment my mom married his nephew, my sister and I were family. And that applied retroactively; we had always been family. My grandparents set that precedent at the wedding, and everybody else followed suit. We belonged, period. By extension, they kind of adopted my kids, some of whom are also "steps." There were no such technicalities in the Peterson/Fitzgerald family.

As you can see from the article, a lot of other people liked him, too. The funeral will be held at our church, which is just about the biggest in town, and I'll bet it's still overflowing. I sort of wonder what my aunt will do now that he's gone, as her health isn't very good. She's sharp as a tack - nothing wrong with her mind - but she doesn't get around as well as she used to. Still, there's no shortage of people who love her, me included. She'll be well cared for.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.