Saying Goodbye to Uncle Jim

Last week we were shocked to hear that Doug's Uncle Jim had died.  We had just seen him and his family at Addie's graduation party and didn't even know that he had been sick.  I called Doug right away to let him know.  He was really sad to hear the news.  The Bridge family had meant a lot to him growing up.  He had spent a lot of time on their farm and had shared wonderful memories of Uncle Jim with all of us.  The Heinisch children had visited with him multiple times over the years and were really sorry to hear of his death.  We were all extremely thankful that we got to see him one last time in May.

When we heard that Uncle Jim's visitation was today, we rearranged everything on our weekend schedule to make sure that we could be there.  We knew that it would be impossible for Brett to join us due to his work schedule, but thought that Cal might be available.  Thankfully, he was free to meet us at the luncheon.  We decided not to ask Cameron to go with us.  After Richard's visitation, we didn't want to hurry him to another one.  Fortunately, Meg and Nick were home this weekend.  They invited him to join them at the Adler Planetarium and lunch at the Shake Shack.  We would be able to pick him up in Chicago on our way home.

We arrived at the visitation at 10 this morning and waited in line to visit Stephanie, Jeremy and Aunt Marg.  It was sad, but we were glad to be there.  We enjoyed talking with them and sharing stories about Uncle Jim.  There was a slideshow of his life as well.  It was nice to see all of the pictures.  We spent the rest of the visitation catching up with Dan, Morgan and Kim.  

The luncheon that followed was equally nice.  Aunt Marg gave a beautiful eulogy about his life.  She talked of his PTSD from being on the front lines of Vietnam.  She also spoke of his dedication to his family and how hard he fought to over come depression.  It was the perfect reminder of just how hard life could be and also how rewarding it could be.  After the luncheon was over, Doug had time to catch up with so many of his family members.  I enjoyed talking with may of them as well catching up with Cal.  I was very thankful that he could join us.  

We left DeKalb around 3 p.m. to meet Meg, Nick and Cameron in Chicago.  They had had a great time at the Planetarium and Cameron had really like the restaurant for lunch.  We picked them up on state street and headed to Lincoln Park.  We walked through the zoo and then met Cal.  He only lives a couple of blocks away from the south end of the park.  We walked and talked through the rest of the park enjoying our time together.  We left Chicago close to 6:30 our time.  On the way home, all I kept thinking of was how Uncle Jim would have really appreciated the way we spent our time together after his visitation.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate his memory.