A Tribute to My Uncle Al

My Uncle Al passed away the day before Thanksgiving. Here is his obituary Like many deaths in this time of COVID, it was hard. But that's not what I want to focus on. I want to focus on him and his life because he was so much fun. 

When we were kids, we were fortunate to be able to spend time on my grandparents farm. My uncle Al who farmed corn, soybeans, and hogs, lived there too. When we would stumble out of bed around eight o'clock, he would often be reading the paper in the rocking chair, on a morning break from the day's worth of work he had already done. As we came down the stairs, he would ask, "Are you sick? You were sleeping so long?"

When the grandkids were on these visits to the farm, our Grandma would always say we'd do "something special." Al would chime in, "Yes, we'll have a nice, cold glass of water." When we balked at that, he'd say, "Then maybe a relaxing nap." When we let him know this wasn't what we had in mind--we wanted to go someplace--he said, "We'll go to church." 

Al was a rascal when he was younger too. My mom tells a story about a summer day when there was a knock at the door. It was a delivery man with $12 of fireworks from Missouri that had been ordered C.O.D. (cash on delivery). In the 1940's, this was a lot of money. Guess who had ordered them?  My mom remembers, "We were all a little surprised that Mom and Dad paid for them and didn't seem too upset." They had the best 4th of July ever that year. 

Al was very good at card games and making bets. As his cousin Trish recalled, he never seemed to lose at cards. I had my own personal experience losing a bet to him on a Bears-Packers game. Al liked the Monsters of the Midway and I was a Green Bay Fan. I wasn't too quick to pay up and I received the below letter from Al. 

You can be sure I paid up. :)

Today was Al's funeral and his good friend Father Carl Lopresti celebrated the Mass. In his homily, he talked about presiding at the marriage of Al and Carol, 20 years ago. This was a happy occurrence in their lives and brought Al two step sons, daughters-in-law, and three granddaughters. As a trustee of St. Mary's Parish in Lexington, Al and Father Carl worked closely together. Father Carl described Al's qualities of being a patient, perceptive listener, who could understand and explain complicated situations, his dry wit, a gentle hand on his shoulder, what you see is what you get, someone who had every good quality. "Blessed the meek for they shall inherit the earth," a line from the gospel reading from Matthew at the funeral was spot on.  Farming, which Al did until 2003, reinforced his natural humility. "The sun won't shine as brightly on the Illinois prairie with Al's passing," said Father Carl. "But love remains and conquers all, even death."

With Theresa in the farm kitchen, trying to act serious.

With a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon.