Uncle Ed
Friday, December 30, 2011
My Uncle Ed has just returned to Seattle after 3 months of volunteering here at Kopila Valley. He wanted to surprise my Aunt Lorraine for New Year's so we had to keep his departure a big secret. I cried like a baby at the security gate in the Nepal Ganj Airport when we had to say goodbye. There are no words to express how grateful I feel to have had him here as part of our team these past few months. My uncle is a retired Marine and spent much of his life traveling around the world and serving our country until he retired to Seattle. When I saw him growing up as a kid, it was always at weddings and funerals and the occasional family reunion or holiday.
Believe it or not, I didn't really know much about who my Uncle Ed was as a person until he came all the way here to Nepal. He and my Aunt Lorraine have been major supporters of this project and home over the past 5 years so to finally have him here living in our home was such a special thing. He worked his BUTT off for the entire 3 months. He is an ideas guy. He has the most amazing ideas and he's really good at executing them too. He was also Mr. Fix-it here around Kopila Valley. He would go around the entire house with his tool bag every day fixing door hinges, the internet, things that were squeaky, you name it. Our entire staff really started relying on him for just about everything. Every time there was a problem, we'd all ask the same question... "Where's Uncle Ed?"
One night at dinner Jeff made a bet that Uncle Ed had more in his pockets than I had in my huge purse/diaper bag that I always carry around. It was seriously a very close competition. Uncle Ed always has everything on hand in one of his many pockets. A tape measure... check. A notebook... check Screwdriver... check Pen... check Pocket knife.... check and the list goes on and on. We all miss him so much and still talk about his incredible work ethic and how the house just doesn't feel the same without him around.
As his niece, I really loved sitting at the dinner table or in the car and hearing stories about his life. It's sort of incredible that without this experience I might have gone my entire life without truly appreciating who my Uncle is as a person and just what an incredibly generous, kind, and humble human being he is. Now I can really say that I know my father's brother and he is one of the most amazing men on the planet!
Uncle Ed, thank you for coming all the way here. Thank you for helping us. We will miss you so much and I hope you come again soon. And Aunt Lorraine, I know how hard it must have been having him so far away so thank YOU too. Thank goodness you're both only a skype call away.
