Monday, May 08, 2006

One Of My Uncles Has Departed This Mortal Coil

I was only saying to the missus last Tuesday that only one of my uncles was dead. Dad has six brothers and six sisters and there are two sisters and a brother on mum's side of the family. Yes, I have lots of cousins.

Friday morning comes around and I get a phone call very early in the morning. Well, a bit earlier than usual, but I was up. Strange for my mum to ring that early but one of dad's brothers, Uncle Athol, had died overnight. He was a diabetic and had been very sick for a long time. He made his own decision when to go and I would liked to have had a chance to say goodbye. I think the last time I saw him was when he came to my wedding in '97.

Uncle Athol was a funny bugger. He had that Ham sense of humour and could tell complete rubbish and manage to keep a straight face - my mum will attest to the fact that she didn't know whether he was putting one over her or not most of the time. But, if you knew my uncle, he was always trying to put one over you. I wouldn't have put it past him to have pretended to die and then come out of that state with a, "I was only joking. Just wanted to see what your reaction was." Wouldn't put it past him at all.

It took three attempts to contact my aunty by phone to talk it over. I'm sure she has been a very busy woman of late but she sounds as though she is handling it well. It's not as if it wasn't unexpected and they had prepared for it.

Uncle Athol used to call me "Spear" or "Rake" but more often Spear. That was because as a lad I didn't have much meat on my bones. I'm going to miss him.

Goodbye Uncle Athol. Rest in peace.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I will attest to the Ham kind of humour, and that not only I didn't know if he was 'putting one over' or not, most of the time. The last time I saw Athol, was when he and his wife came over here a couple of months ago. He had a go at me about my late father, and how , when I was a child, dad used to kill porcupines and skin them, and hang the skins up to dry. Then he would sell them. This was complete rubbish of course, but one of his brother's friends believed him! The only thing a porcupine skin is good for, is to cover a porcupine!
Vale Athol.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear of your loss..

Hammy said...

Thanks Lori. I know that it must have been hard for you recently too.

Anonymous said...

Uncle Athol was a 'funny bugger' and his spirit lives on in his grandson. At the burial, the lad came forward when it was time to toss a flower into the grave. He dropped a carrot! He is about 12, I think.