416. In Passing

Many of my recollections from childhood center of holidays and eating. As we enter this year's holiday season, one person from those memories has now slipped into the irretrievable past, a place where also resides most of those others who fill the holiday scenes of my childhood.

I took my mother across the river to Clarksville, Indiana today to attend the funeral services for her uncle, Paul Smith, who died Sunday at the age of 82. Uncle Paul was born in and, like my grandfather Hockensmith's younger sister Mildred whom he later married, was raised in the little town of Bethlehem, which is about 29 miles upstream along the Right Bank of the Ohio in Clark County, Indiana. I've written of Bethlehem before in an entry on July 27, 2007.

From Bethlehem, Uncle Paul and Aunt Mildred moved to Clarksville where they have remained since. Memories of Uncle Paul center on Thanksgiving or Christmas parties, held either at our house in southern Jefferson County or their's in Clarksville. One of my earliest memories, probably from when I was 4 or 5, was Uncle Paul coming into our kitchen, before the addition of the Family Room in `1968, with a pie in each hand, pies made by my Aunt Mildred. Or, when we celebrated at their house, their kitchen, along the back side of the house, was always filled with food of all kinds. In addition to Uncle Paul and Aunt Mildred were their children, Mike and Paula, and later Mike and Paula's children, which numbered four. Now, there are great-grandchildren, none of whom I know, but many of whom I saw today in the tiny Chapman Funeral Home on Harrison Avenue in Old Clarksville.

I will always remember Uncle Paul with a smile - he was a very pleasant man, at least for those few hours a year when my family visited his family in the dark of Winter.

Uncle Paul Smith, Rest In Peace. May his soul and the souls of all the departed rest in peace.

*****

Today is the birthday of a friend of mine, Darryl Wilkins, husband of Hazel Hartley, friends since the mid 1990s. You may have seen Darryl on the tee-vee this political season. He was the United States Navy Veteran featured in one of Congressman John Yarmuth's campaign commercials. Happy Birthday, Darryl.

Today would have been my grandfather Noble's 102nd birthday. He died in July, 1987.

*****

Finally, at the close of the workday, Louisville had its first real snow shower. It didn't stick, it didn't last, and its all gone now. But, it made for a pretty sight as the sun descended over the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606.

All is good. Pray for my Aunt Mildred and her family.