Before I get started on today's Blog concerning my late Uncle, I just wanted to mention the Trump Moratorium on Travel to the USA from 7 Select Arab Countries.
I indicated at the end of my most recent Blog that I would be dealing with this subject 'soon' but have decided to delay that somewhat due to the hysteria and untruths surrounding this subject. ...Stay Tuned.
Now Back to Uncle Fred:
My Uncle Fred was the kindest most gentle chap you could ever imagine but... like the lovers in Romeo and Juliet, he was star-crossed.
Uncle Fred was a farmer from a long line of farmers. He was my grandmother's brother from a family of 6 girls and 2 boys.
Uncle Fred and his brother - Uncle Percy, purchased a farm a few concessions below their father's farm in the early 1920s. It was there when the first tragedy occurred. One of his young nieces, who was visiting their farm, was hit on the back of the head by a heavy wooden swing and died. Uncle Fred personally felt responsible for this poor child's death.
He married the local school marm - Annie-Mae and was soon blessed with a daughter Helen. Tragedy 2 occurred when his wife passed away in her early 40s leaving him alone to raise his young daughter.
He then married Ella also a widow and retired into a small rural town nearby. My mother and father, for a short time, lived in that small town and my mother recalled tutoring Helen who was now in her teens and attending high-school. She was helping Helen with her math ...(it's a good thing she did not come to me for help since Math was by far my worst subject).
(As a note here - Aunt Ella had also lost a young son to a swollen creek during an early Spring run-off. A search over the course of several days failed to find the young boy's body however in a dream, a local farmer saw where he lay. Early next morning, the farmer went to the spot shown him in his dream and there was Ella's son).
It was around this point that I vividly recall visiting Uncle Fred and Aunt Ella. Two things always struck me on my visits the first was Uncle Fred's profound deafness and the second was the source of water to the house - an olde hand pump found in the kitchen.
One other thing stuck out for me and that was playing checkers with my Uncle. He always won and I seldom even got passed the first few moves. I can still remember the infectious twinkle in his eyes.
My parents told me that Uncle Fred was a proficient fiddle player prior to going deaf and I can picture in my mind his playing at the numerous barn dances that likely took place in the rural countryside.
But back to tragedy. In due course Helen left home, got married and had three children of her own...all boys. Her oldest was named Gregory...Greggie for short and was the apple of Uncle Fred's eye. Looking back I believe Greggie had what we would now call some developmental challenges but save for that, he was a regular kid and along with his two brothers no doubt kept their parents busy.
When Greggie was about 8 years old, Uncle Fred passed away. During the last few days of his life, my mother - a Registered Nurse - was at Uncle Fred's bedside. She recalled that near the end he had tried to 'blow out' his bedside lamp mistaking it for a candle. His mind at that point was clearly back to an earlier and possibly much happier time for him.
Soon after Uncle Fred's passing...Young Greggie drowned in the nearby River. The river was mostly shallow and one had to walk out a great distance to reach deep water. The strong suspicion, among the family, was that Greggie had deliberately drowned himself in order to be with his Grandpa - our Uncle Fred - in Heaven. Tragedy 3
My cousins and I acted as pallbearers at his very sad funeral.
The next tragedy was not long in coming.
Helen, her husband and her remaining 2 boys found themselves in a winter blizzard and were soon engulfed in a major car pile-up. Helen was killed instantly. Tragedy 4
Her two young sons were both seriously injured in the crash and within weeks, one of her injured boys succumbed to his injuries. Tragedy 5
Again my cousins and I found ourselves carrying his casket to the nearby cemetery.
One of those pallbearers - Aunt Ella's grandson, was killed a few years later when the transport truck he was driving went off the road. Tragedy 6
Then Aunt Ella's son - also a farmer, got his leg caught in a threshing machine and if it was not for the quick thinking of a neighbour farmer working with him that day, he too would have perished. As it was, he lost his leg up to his hip. Tragedy 7
Many years later my parents received a letter from Helen's surviving husband saying that in his early 30s the final grandson of Uncle Fred had also passed away. Doctors tending the young man at his death laid the responsibility for his death on that terrible Winter Car Crash of many years back. Tragedy 8
Uncle Fred's Lineage was no more.
When I am having days when things just seem not to go right, I think of my Uncle Fred and remember the twinkle in his eyes and realize just how lucky I really am.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
