This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 12:25 am and is filed under Gift Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Whenever I enter the backyard of my parent’s house, I still see his radiant smile surrounded by the fragrance of a calm autumn day. His image will always appear perched high above us all, on a tree branch set in the shadows of crabapples and sun-dried leaves. This was the last time I saw Uncle Ron, who dropped off his 20-year-old, lumbering monster of a dog, Jeremiah for my family to watch while he went in for a “simple procedure.” At that time, I was slowly approaching my pre-teen years and did not fully understand the severity of this hospital visit.
If you skim through the photo album of my mind, you will find many snapshots of my Uncle Ron, who was not my biological uncle, but my father’s best friend. As a young child, my father exposed me to a wide-range of life experiences and Uncle Ron was right there with us. Straddled on top of my father’s shoulders, I visited some of his favorite hangouts, meeting up with my Uncle Ron. While they listened to music and drank beer, I nursed a Cherry Coke and absorbed my surroundings like an eager sponge. When my father and I got stuck at the top of a ferris wheel, Uncle Ron was at the bottom grinning from ear to ear. When he passed away, it was the first time I ever saw my father shed a tear. I remember him as adventurous and humorous with a smile that lit up the room. It is this smile that I imagine emerging from the trees when I travel into the thick of the backyard, embracing the warmth of the sun.
Uncle Ron showered me with gifts that cultivated my imagination and opened my mind to new experiences. It was he, who fostered my interest in art, painting and drawing. One Christmas, I remember opening a nicely sized rectangular box, dressed in tissue paper. The light scent of what reminded me of cedar floated from the package, as I lifted a how-to-draw book. Various drawing pencils and charcoal sticks accompanied the book, as well as an acrylic paint-by-numbers set. I cherished this gift because it took me beyond sketching with pencils. It brought to life a whole new world of artistic expression.
Tucked under the tissue paper, there were a few plastic baggies containing tiny treasures that furthered my imagination. He had included a subscription to some sort of gem collecting service. Throughout the years, I received Tiger’s Eye, Jade and a diamond ring. I used to think the small pieces of precious and semi-precious minerals were priceless, hailing from important worldwide archeological digs.
Uncle Ron further sparked my interest regarding Africa, Asia, Europe and other places across the globe. For several years, he sent me a subscription to National Geographic. The colorful photos of jaguars, tropical fish and desert landscapes encouraged pleasant dreams, as well as influenced my art and writing. I am saddened that my uncle will never see how influential his gifts were to me. They fed my hunger for knowledge and provided me with the direction my young mind needed, as I navigated through the choppy waters of creativity.
