Uncle Dick

Went to see Mom yesterday. My brother Mike came, too. About an hour into the visit, and only because his name came up in conversation, Mom remarked, "Uncle Dick died." That's my father's older brother. She didn't know how or of what or when, only that his girlfriend had called her on Friday. That would be yesterday, we asked? Or last Friday?  She wasn't sure.

My cousin says he suffered a massive stroke on Christmas and died the next day.  He was 93.

Anyway, this is distressing on two counts, and I am also wondering whether I'll go abroad this year, after all.

Here's a photo of my uncle at Thanksgiving, beating the pants off of nearly everybody at Scrabble - except his sister, Aunt Pat, who used all her letters (so says Cousin Cindy) on her first turn.  He looks very, very much like my father, and she looks more than a little like Grandma Jones (their mother).

And here is my uncle's obit, not that it will interest many outside our family...

Richard Wilson "Dick" Jones, Lansing, Age 93, died December 26, 2012. Mr. Jones was born March 25, 1919 at Fort Sill, OK, the son of Major Leland H. and Nora Smiley Jones. He grew up in East Lansing, MI and Crystal Falls, MI. He graduated from Graveraet High School in Marquette, MI and from Michigan State College in 1941 with a B.S. degree in civil engineering. He served in the Army Air Corps in World War II as an aircraft maintenance officer in the 486th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force in England. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and was stationed at an Air Force depot in Chateauroux, France. He was a structural steel engineer and was employed by the Mississippi Valley Structural Steel Company, Amercel Structures, the Planet Corporation and BOC division of General Motors. He was a longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, having served as an elder and a deacon and played in the bell choir. He was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Marie Lundquist Jones in 1995 and his brother, David L. Jones in 2008. He is survived by twin sons, Steven and David of Anchorage, AK; one sister, Patricia A. Ehrlich of Kalamazoo; one sister-in-law, Barbara Jones of Springfield, Virginia; two grandchildren, Derek (Carrie) Sheets and Morgan (Christopher) Browne; and his special great-grandson, Austin Sheets. The funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, December 31, 2012, at First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, with the Rev. Anne Weirich and the Rev. Charles Herrick officiating. Interment will follow in Deepdale Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be held from 3-5 p.m. Sunday at the Estes-Leadley Greater Lansing Chapel. Those desiring may make donations to the First Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund, 510 W. Ottawa St., Lansing, MI 48933, in memory of Mr. Jones.