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uncle paul
Mom said I was Uncle Paul's favorite -- I don't know, I was just a baby. She said he always played with me and doted on me whenever we visited him and Aunt Beatrice at their farm in the likely named locality of Farmland, Indiana.
This was back in the 1960s. Aunt Beatrice and Uncle Paul had a son, Paul Ray, and ran a small farm there.
But I was Uncle Paul's favorite nephew. He could always make me giggle, mom said, his face always lit up when I was there. My older siblings were Paul Ray's age, so maybe he just missed having a little one around.
Who knows?
Our family had -- has -- secrets so maybe there was more to it; maybe they couldn't have any more kids. It was never discussed.
One day in the middle sixties Uncle Paul was hauling 50-pound sacks of fertilizer in his Ford pickup down one of the endless strips of two-lane blacktop that crisscross the Indiana landscape. The story as I understand it is muddled; no one ever said for sure what happened, but there was an accident.
This was back in the 1960s. Aunt Beatrice and Uncle Paul had a son, Paul Ray, and ran a small farm there.
But I was Uncle Paul's favorite nephew. He could always make me giggle, mom said, his face always lit up when I was there. My older siblings were Paul Ray's age, so maybe he just missed having a little one around.
Who knows?
Our family had -- has -- secrets so maybe there was more to it; maybe they couldn't have any more kids. It was never discussed.
One day in the middle sixties Uncle Paul was hauling 50-pound sacks of fertilizer in his Ford pickup down one of the endless strips of two-lane blacktop that crisscross the Indiana landscape. The story as I understand it is muddled; no one ever said for sure what happened, but there was an accident.
Uncle Paul ran off the side of the road and smacked into a concrete boundary marker. He was probably going fast enough to die from the impact, but one of the bags of fertilizer rammed through the rear window of the truck and struck him on the back of his neck, breaking it.
I sometimes wonder what caused him to run off the road. Was he drunk? Did something break on the truck? Was he distracted somehow? Did someone run him off the road?
Paul Ray got a degree from Ball State but never left home or showed much ambition to leave. Aunt Beatrice married a man from Arizona -- I think his name was Roy. He died just a couple years after that. Then Paul Ray died from complications of diabetes in his 50s.
Aunt Beatrice died a few years ago and was buried by one of her sisters -- and aunt I don't really know -- without so much as a service or discussion with the family. She was in the ground before dad ever knew she was ill.
One family gone. Just like that. Nothing left but memories.
Like, "I was Uncle Paul's favorite." Even if I don't really know what that meant.
I sometimes wonder what caused him to run off the road. Was he drunk? Did something break on the truck? Was he distracted somehow? Did someone run him off the road?
Paul Ray got a degree from Ball State but never left home or showed much ambition to leave. Aunt Beatrice married a man from Arizona -- I think his name was Roy. He died just a couple years after that. Then Paul Ray died from complications of diabetes in his 50s.
Aunt Beatrice died a few years ago and was buried by one of her sisters -- and aunt I don't really know -- without so much as a service or discussion with the family. She was in the ground before dad ever knew she was ill.
One family gone. Just like that. Nothing left but memories.
Like, "I was Uncle Paul's favorite." Even if I don't really know what that meant.
