A Family Gathers Together

My Uncle Jack passed from this earth to heaven during the last week of August 2009. In thinking about what he endured over the time that this cancer was working damage in his body; it begs the question, why does the socialization of men include teaching them to ignore their pain to their eventual demise? Men have been socialized by their fathers and their grandfathers before them that to ignore pain is being a man. This teaching takes fathers away from children and husbands away from their wives. Jack endured four weeks of pain and his wife and children endured four weeks of stress and grief.

Greg and I drove the 659 miles to Houston to grieve the passing of a most perfect uncle and a good man. We attended his funeral and his interment which was with full military honors. He was my picture of what a father was supposed to be like, when I was growing up. Spending summers with my cousins, I got to be around my aunt and uncle who loved each other dearly. A picture of what marriage is supposed to look like.

I got to spend time that afternoon with my cousins and my aunt at my aunt's home. After my cousin, Beckie offered me a cup of coffee, they told me of what their father had been through. The next morning early, Greg and I were on the road to drive back to New Mexico. I left with the thoughts of why Jack couldn't have had a longer life. He deserved better.