My Uncle Bob Died Last Night

Screw this playlist, and losing the man who had the best stories

Uncle Bob on the far right. (I haven’t been born yet.) Photo shared by the author.

The song on the radio plays…

“Here’s to love and here’s to hope. Here’s to loss and letting go, here’s to hitting off the mark, and here’s to the changing of the guard that comes around.

Here’s to shame and to glory. Here’s to taken flight and falling. Here’s to getting back up and walking, we will come around.

Can’t you feel it? Can’t you see?”

-Dug “Jubilee”

I am sad.

Last night, from my kitchen in Chicago, I called Aunt Janet. Passed anyone’s bedtime. She still answered. Aunt Janet always answers when I call. Told her I could come Thursday. She hesitated and McKenzie wrote on a piece of paper, “Ask her if we can come tomorrow.”

“Would Wednesday be better, Aunt Janet?”

She gave me a quiet yes. “Yes.”

Before we went to bed, McKenzie said, “Everyone in your family likes me. But your Uncle Bob loves me. I want to go. Our time with him was very special.”

I woke up at 5am to a text. We’d missed the window to see him one last time. He passed at home. A quiet no. A quiet goodbye.

The track on the playlist has rolled over…