Memorial to Uncle Steve

Today my parents, siblings and I are having a small memorial service to place my Uncle into my Grandma's grave. He passed away over a year ago, but my parents had to pay to have the grave opened so it has taken awhile to place him with his mother. My hubby is working, and I decided not to take the kids out of school. The two younger ones don't ever remember meeting him, and my oldest only met him twice as a young child.

Kids are so funny, when I told them about the service (just in case they really!!! wanted to come), Mariah surprised me and said "I want to go!!" I asked her really, it is going to be outside and Father Rengilli is just going to say a few prayers and we will put him in the grave. She said "Well I have never seen a dead body before, I really want to see the dead body!" Sorry to disappoint you on this one child, but he has been cremated, no dead body only ashes. You see those every time you go to Grandma's in the box on the piano. She was severely disappointed about that.

My Uncle Steve was extremely smart (his IQ was very high), and a brilliantly talented artist that was from the Hippie age. He rolled his own cigarettes (not just tobacco ones either ;) drank Near Beer, and did all the drugs you could think of. The reason I know about the drugs is that we discovered allot of his paraphernalia when he moved one time. Also when I was a teenager he dropped Acid and then read the Book of Revelations. Wow! Let me just say from my second hand experience that this is NEVER!!! a good plan, just in case you were considering it! He spent a week or two in the Psych ward after that episode. Sadly as life went on he drowned himself in alcohol and never could recover from it.

Sad when someone that is so talented spirals out of control and can never be brought back. He swore to us later in life that he had lead poisoning from the soldering of the stained glass, which might be partially true. The rest was the alcohol that poisoned him.

He amazed me in his artistic talent. His stained glass work was beautiful as you can see by the picture I have enclosed of my lamp he made me. It is one of my most beloved possessions. It is sad to say goodbye to anyone. Easier for some than others. I am sorry to say that we did not get a chance to spend a lot of time with Uncle Steve, but the time spent left a deep impression on me and the things I love in life.

I have a deep love of anything glass related in the art world. I did glass painting for a while and am saving up and getting ready to take some stained glass classes in memory of Uncle Steve. I tend to gravitate towards beautiful colored glass in all shapes and believe this is from his influence on me. Being the oldest of us all, I am the one that probably remembers him most. He gave me many art books and taught me the value of the different colors of glass. Red in stained glass is super expensive. Blue glass is highly desirable by artist. I am thankful for the love that he passed on to me of glass art.

Goodbye Uncle Steve, I will hold on and pass down to my children the love of art. I will also teach the value of knowing what addiction is and that it truly runs in our family. Rest in peace with my beloved Grandma Louise. She will be happy to have her baby with her. We love you Uncle Steve!