Uncle Jimmy

There are some people who don’t need a loud booming voice or a boisterous personality to make a mark on life. Such a person was my Uncle Jimmy (Redeker). He died over the weekend. He was having heart problems. He was the youngest of five siblings in my Mom’s family and had hearing problems throughout his life.

His wife, my Aunt Janice, is a force of nature. He also had three girls; Jamie, Judy, and Jeanne. Needless to say he was outnumbered by the female sex in his own family. How he would have felt about having a son instead of three daughters I’ll never know. As far as I do know he was proud of his three girls.

Uncle Jimmy was soft spoken and I never saw him get flustered during any of our family gatherings over the years. When I was a kid we used to visit with their family over Christmas, but that practice ended somewhere over the years because nobody’s kids wanted to spend hours listening to others boasting about what Santa brought them for Christmas. Through it all my Uncle Jimmy remained diplomatic.

I guess some might say he was mousey or henpecked. I prefer to think of him like Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He would bear what he needed to for the sake of family. There are some who don’t like my Aunt Janice and to visit my Uncle Jimmy meant having to deal with Aunt Janice. It was a small price to pay to see Uncle Jim.

Life is full of regrets and one of mine will be that I didn’t go to see my Uncle Jimmy the last time I was on vacation. My Mom told me he wasn’t doing well and we should go to visit him. I put it off thinking I could see him during Christmas vacation. How I wish now I had one of those days back. I don’t know what we would have talked about. It could have been any thing because it’s not what you say when you’re with family that’s important, it’s that you have that time together.