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On August 26th I got news that I am still struggling to accept almost a week later. My Uncle Chris fell asleep with the lord after succumbing to his long and brutal bought with cancer. As the many stories of my Uncle Chris flow through my head I find myself in a position I am rarely in, I simply do not know what to say.
My heart is breaking on so many different levels I don’t even know where to begin. I think about his wife and kids. His nieces and nephews, siblings, and friends, and how much we will all miss him.
I have his voice trapped in my head with no plans ever letting it go. I play it over and over like a record. Each time I feel like crumbling to the floor, but I don’t, because it reminds me of the man he was. For anyone that knows my Uncle Chris knows what I mean. My Uncle Chris had this ability to speak in a loud room without ever having to talk over the crowd. It was almost like magic.
If you were to my Uncle Chris in a room you would have found a humble man that was fully satisfied with the man that he was. If you wanted to hear about his days as an F-15 fight pilot you would have to pry it out of him or get it from someone else. Despite being a decorated and well respected fighter pilot, that was something he had done in the past, something he was very proud of, but not what he wanted to be remembered for. My Uncle Chris will be best known for being a good father, a good husband, and a damn good Uncle. We respected my Uncle not because he was an Officer in the Air Force, a Fighter Pilot, or the fact that he traveled around the globe in a C-5 during the first Gulf War. We respected my Uncle because of that man he was when we knew him, for the way he treated us, and for the respect that he gave to us.
My Uncle Chris was the kind of man that made you a better person knowing him, I know I am, and I have no intention for letting his voice ever to escape my memory.