Memories

This morning while cleaning up my scraproom I came across these pictures (boy I looked young back then). Last month my Uncle Caroll passed away, and at the time none of us were able to get down to Atlanta for his memorial. I remember the morning my mom called to tell me he had passed away and I remember the pain that this brought me. At the time we had a lot of "church stuff" going on and it didn't really register with me what this meant. I recall spending the summer with them when we lived in DC, and then the first time that I was able to visit him and Aunt Gerry in Florida (that is when these pics were taken). My uncle was known for making some of the best hamburgers around (you can see them in the pictures). They weren't little hamburgers either! The last time I got to visit him at his home in Florida was not long after Aunt Gerry had passed away. The last time I actually got to see him was at my stepfathers funeral two years ago. The one thing I loved about my Uncle Caroll was the fact that he welcomed me into his home and into the family when my mom married his brother, not once did I ever feel less a part of the family then that of my sister. In many ways I actually got to spend more time with them as a child because we moved away from DC when my sister was born, and by then I had spent many summers with them hanging out by the pool and being spoiled by my aunt and uncle. A few years ago he remarried and moved to Atlanta and though we talked many times about visiting them in GA it never happened. Sometimes we let life get in the way of some really important things. Yes, God called us to ministry, but sometimes he calls us to minister to our own family members. I will always have fond memories of my time with them, but I'm kicking myself for putting off visiting him at a time when it may have been most important.