i first met him in December 2009. he sent me an email through the Canadian Preppers Network, which i was running at the time. he asked if i would be interested in posting some stories that he had written. i said "of course!". he then sent me 8 or 9 of the most beautiful stories i had ever read.
this was
the first story that he sent me. about his cousin, Mary Catherine, and it had a profound affect on his life. he sent me several more stories, each one somehow better than the last.
we spent many hours on the phone together. our conversations ranged from Bible Study, and he was an exceptional teacher! - to the most ridiculous of topics that you could ever imagine. we laughed a lot together. we were also very serious.
he taught me and jambaloney so much about the Bible...he was very proud when one of his stories taught jambaloney, in an instant, about the two seeds. for those of you who aren't religious, please don't be offended that a lot of his stories are Bible-related. his stories are for everyone who simply wants to learn about the world and it's ways and it's whys.
after he had shared several of his stories with me, and told me how many more he had, i knew that i needed to start a blog for him. he truly did not want a blog, but i convinced him that his stories needed to be shared with the world. and so i created
The Last Robin for him. and he became my Dear Uncle and mentor.
we became very close and very fast. i shared so much with him about myself, and he did the same. jambaloney would hear snippets of our phone calls and told me that he thought we were both crazy. he was right. some of our telephone conversations would go from dead serious to almost blasphemy. we wanted to start a reality tv show in which we would travel around rural america and rate the reds of various barns. oh my - we could talk and screech and laugh about that for hours. jambaloney said it wasn't funny the first time i told it to him...and that was years ago! but me and Uncle Gerald could laugh about what a great reality show it would be.
we also planned on buying up a whole pile of cheap rocking chairs. then we would set up a General Store somewhere that got lots of tourists, like maybe Florida. we would hire a little old lady to sit in the rocking chair out front. as tourists would approach, she would tell them that the rocking chair was made by her great, great grandfather for her great, great grandmother. she would hook the tourists with that story. then they would come into the store and ask if they could purchase such a beautiful antique. Uncle Gerald and i would say that there was absolutely no way that we could take that chair from our grandmother out on the porch....she would die if we did so. during this part of the conversation we would start the ridiculous giggling. but back to our plan. the tourists would be drooling to get that chair. and we would sell it, sadly, for a great big hefty sum of money. we would sadly help the tourists tie the chair to the top of their car...and sadly wave goodbye. then we would snicker, count our money, pay the little old lady....and go get another rocking chair from the basement. we were sure we could get rich this way.
yes, jambaloney was right. me and Uncle Gerald were crazy!!!!
for such a serious guy, my goodness was he funny! and smart! he knew everything about everything and he always told me that he would come up with the idea...but that jambaloney and i would follow through on it. and we tried everything that he suggested or recommended.
he was very proud of us for choosing Framboise Manor to live out the rest of our days. he was very proud that jambaloney first learned to hunt with a ben pearson cougar re-curve from both the left and the right. he enjoyed talking to jambaloney on the phone and always told me how smart my jambaloney was. and that is something coming from the smartest man i know.
right up until the last time i spoke to him (the day before yesterday), we laughed about him telling me to plant duckweed down by the river in order to attract ducks who would then stay year-round and we could get duck eggs. talk about a ginormic fail! for years i told him he owed me $3.49 for the price of that seed pack!!!!
although i have always felt close to God, and Jesus, he brought both me and jambaloney even closer with his incredible way of teaching the Bible to both of us. i always told him how grateful we were for his lessons...and he always acted like he couldn't believe it.
we laughed many times about how he would mention something and i would run off with it, crazy and not thinking it all the way through. he told me about hugelkultures and poor jambaloney was out building one that very afternoon. and it sucked. and i told Uncle Gerald - that's another big fail and we laughed and laughed.
one day, several years ago, i told him of all the different versions of the Bible that i had and how i liked to spread them all over the floor and then read them all at the same time. he had the gaul to call me crazy! he had done the same thing his whole life!!!! then he told me i need a Scofield Concordance. of course, i got off the phone with him and ordered one. when i spoke to him the next day and i very proudly told him that i had gotten a Scofield, the Old Version, he said i needed the new version!!!! i said - "couldn't you have told me that yesterday????". he said i was the only person in his life who jumped on whatever he said. then i told him he owed me $40 bucks.
he sent us many books. he sent us many of his favourite films. he loved us and we loved him.
he had the good fortune of meeting up with John Wesley Smith, of
Destiny Survival, and John's wife, who Uncle Gerald called an angel...and he meant it. John Wesley and his wife have done so much for Uncle Gerald...not the least of which is put up with him. honestly, Uncle Gerald could be a handful! i thank them for all that they did for Uncle Gerald, and for what they are still doing.
to end, my dear Uncle died yesterday. when i last spoke to him the day before, we laughed, we cried, we came up with a few more money-making schemes that i can't share in case any of you steal our ideas.....he begged me not to mourn him. i told him that i would only miss his voice...he loved it when i told him how much i loved his voice. he would tell me something and then say "ohh, maaaaan" - and i would screech everytime he said that. me and jambaloney say "ohhh maaaan" all the time. he liked that, too.
i told him i would never miss his physical presence as i had never physically met him. but that i would miss his voice, even though i will always hear his voice in my head.
my heart is broken. he is the only Uncle i have ever known. i know that he will be there when we are all called. but i miss him. and i promised that i wouldn't grieve. i am really trying to live up to my promise. it's just a little bit hard.
John Wesley, who actually knew Uncle Gerald for almost half of his (John Wesley's) life...has a beautiful tribute to Uncle Gerald over at
The Last Robin. i would be very grateful if you went and read John Wesley's tribute, read a few stories written by
The Last Robin, and checked out John Wesley's excellent site,
Destiny Survival.
i promised Uncle Gerald that his website will be there until the internet goes down. John Wesley has at least another 6 months worth of daily posts from Uncle Gerald and he will be sure to post each one of them. then the plan is to start back at the beginning and re-post all of Uncle Gerald's beautiful messages. he may be gone, he WILL NEVER be forgotten....and through the tears, i still hear his beautiful laughter.
my last words that i spoke to him were "i love you Uncle Gerald." his last words to me were "i love you kymber. i love you, my dear niece"
thank you, Uncle Gerald....for everything. your loving niece,
kymber
