For Uncle Wayne

I heard of Uncle Wayne's passing yesterday in the middle of a brunch with two friends. It's pretty surreal, and mainly very sad. I wrote him a card when he moved to Chula Vista and he had to ask my mom which daughter I was, which only made me laugh because all 4 of us are our own interchangeable hot messes. It's very weird to think of him gone and I'm saddened for all the brothers and sisters, and grandma, and everyone, and sorry I can't be closer with everyone at this time.

My favorite memories of Uncle Wayne were him always, every year without fail, shouting out a request for "O TANNENBAUM IN GERMAN!" at Christmas when us cousins were making collective fools of ourselves by caroling to everyone. I did learn that song in German for a show in elementary school, but as the years went on I forgot everything except "O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter" and so I used to just continue on in made up German-sounding jibber jabber for the rest of the song and whether he realized it or not, he was still just as happy.

This is the picture we all seem to be loving and passing around the most, so I will close it out with this.



Love and miss you all and hope you know I wish I could be closer during this time.