30
September 2004
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1943 - J0 Ha11 (my grandmother), holding my mother Judy, my great-grandmother M0rrow, my great-aunt Kate and her husband, my Pa-Pa, Sissy, Wand@, J0, my great-aunt Mary, Billy and Cousin Jimmy. My mother's brother died this morning. He was 73. Offically he died from complications due to internal bleeding from a bleeding ulcer and diabetes. But he really died from war. The bottle. A broken heart. Life. Billy was about 12 years older than my mom, and since he left home at 16, he wasn't the typical big brother, but she loved him like the charming rounder he was. All the girls did. He was the family's black sheep, and as black sheep usually are, he was the Love of my grandparents' heart. Billy was their prodigal son. He did everything wrong, but they prayed every day that he'd come home. When he was about 15 he ran away and joined the Army. He forged documents so they'd let him into the service, and when they figured out he was still a minor they shipped him back to Ohio. But a few years later he was back, just in time for the Korean War. He was a career serviceman, and the Army took him across the country and the world, all the way to South Dakota where he fell in love with a dark-haired Sioux and gave her four daughters before leaving them all forever. I wonder if his girls know he's gone, and then I wonder if they even care. He's being cremated, and in a few months he'll be buried in Ar1ington Cemetery. It's fitting, as his brothers-in-service were really the only family he ever had. Which was his choice, of course. But his sisters loved him and kept him close to their hearts. They still do, and now that he's gone, he'll never leave them.
1974 - Billy, Wand@, D!ck, J0, Jane, Judy, J0, L!ge, Sissy
1975 - J@ne, Judy, J0, Billy, Wanda, D!ck and Sissy with their parents in the back row. My brother G is in the foreground. My cousins M@tt and J0 are standing by their mother. The notify knows about Weight Challenged.
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