It feels only fitting that I use this platform to express my deep sadness at the death of my Uncle Mike. I call him Uncle even though he’s an uncle-in-law, because he always called me his niece and never niece-in-law. In fact, that’s exactly what he said last week, when he was shared my blog post on Facebook, singing my praises, just as he always did.

No matter what I did, he was always there to celebrate and shout from the roof tops. That’s who he was. He loved to celebrate others. He loved seeing pictures of our kids and their accomplishments. He was often the first comment with kind words.

This morning I woke up and saw a message on my phone that stunned me. Mike had died suddenly last night. I couldn’t understand at first. I’d read a Facebook post from him shortly before going to bed. He’s always posting funny memes and roasting the local newspaper or sports coaches. He was just here, I wanted to say.

He was so funny and smart in such a quintessentially Southern way. He always had these long, meandering, hilarious stories with amazing punchlines. He was so happy to sit and visit and laugh for hours. He was always so happy to be in the presence of family. He was game for anything, and just radiated joy and happiness.

And he wrote these great Facebook birthday messages.

And have I mentioned the memes and political cartoons? They were legendary.

And no one roasted the local journalists like he did.

It’s amazing to me now how he was able to stay so connected and supported of us. He always kept up, he always reached out.

I am so sad for his family. His wife, Cathy and his daughter, Beth are surely going through an incredibly difficult time. His sister Kathryn (my mother-in-law) and his brother Stephen as well. It’s so hard to lose him right as he was completing his second Covid vaccine, and perhaps looking forward to trips and visits in the near future.

Still so sad and so shocked. To end, I want to share some photos of Mike here, if you’ll indulge me.

First, in the photo booth at my wedding in 2010, with his wife, Cathy, and daughter, Beth.

Here he is with David’s sister, Allison, at Kenneth and Amanda’s wedding, also 2010:

Here he is in 2017 at Allison’s wedding.