Hug Your Family

Uncle Jerry and Uncle Pink

Today we celebrated the life of my Uncle Charles Wilke...  better known as Pink.  The story goes he had really pink cheeks as a baby so Grammy always called him Pinkie.  It stuck.

 I took the photo above at the Davenport Relay for Life in 2010.  At the time neither of my Uncles participated in the Survivor lap.  They hadn't earned that badge of honor yet and we were all there at this event to celebrate several other family members that were walking in the survivor lap.  Now they are both gone.  Cancer sucks!

Trying to explain big concepts like death and funerals to Riley always presents a bit of a challenge.    Today I explained to Riley that we were going to special church because Uncle Pink went to live with Jesus.  Then we are having a big party to celebrate Uncle Pink and how special he was to our family.  Riley simply replied OK Gramma's brother went to see God and Jesus at church and we have party.  It would help us all to have such a childlike understanding of the world.  As adults we complicate things so much.  

Riley does love a good party so he was all about entertaining the cousins he had never met before and those he sees often.  He spent the day chatting everyone up and making new friends.  At one point I walked into the room he was in and he's asking my cousin Steve who his sweetie is.  Steve didn't miss a beat and replied...  I'm kinda in between sweeties right now.

As always these gatherings are a good reminder to hug your family tight and celebrate the moments you have with each other.