Dennis' greatuncle Les occupied a very special role in our family for many years. A retired Pullman conductor, he was young at heart and loved being around our little kids and being included with family activities. Many times, we had to go somewhere on weekend mornings. With this crowd, you could not take it easy, you had to go somewhere so everybody could RUN AROUND. It didn't matter if it was freezing cold. Sometimes, we would call Uncle Les, who was in his late 80s "Hey Les, we are going to the beach, you wanna come?"
"Yes Ma'am!" so we would go over and pick him up. He'd have his running shoes on and was ready to hang out with the general preschool crowd. He came for the holidays and stood in for Danny's Grandparents Day in kindergarten. He was the very first one to get to the hospital when I had Ilana, he even beat my mother. He was funny and interesting to talk to, a joy to have around. I liked him and I knew he liked me.
I've been thinking about Uncle Les and his willingness to be part of our family, to be with the kids and to see whatever new thing that came up. No stick in the mud, that Les, he embraced life. It was hard for me to find a picture. Here he is, in 1982, at our old house, just when we got Danny. That's one of his girlfriends, Virginia, in the picture. I knew his girlfriends, I liked them quite a bit.
I was also involved quite intensely with him at the end of his life. I wrote him a letter that I know he treasured. I won't share it here. He asked everybody who came to see him to read him the letter and he asked his daughter to have the letter read at his memorial. I felt very honored to have known Uncle Les.
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