Monday, September 15, 2008

Serendipity of Our Road Trip

Steve and I hadn't been to College Place, Washington in a long long time. For me it had been 39 years when our grandmother was buried. For Steve it had been even longer. We discovered that our Uncle Joe, our Mom's twin brother, lives in Kennewick just an hour away from where the funeral for our Dad's sister, Grace, was held. On our way home we decided to stop and see him. For reasons I cannot explain, we had never met our cousin, Jenice, and had only seen Uncle Joe a few times in our lives. The last time I saw him was when I was 15 or so.

Twins~Special Miracle!

When we arrived we found our sweet little uncle in a hospital bed having just had some facial surgery to remove some cancerous spots. So he had the bandages but he is in pretty good health for an 89 year old man. He is the last of the nine siblings of our mom that is still alive.

Joseph Robert Reese

It was a magical moment to see him and we both marveled at how much he looked like our mom...especially his smile. Aren't they cute?

Josephine Roberta Reese Colberg

Uncle Joe is still pretty sharp and asked us about lots of family members. I am so thankful that we made the decision to go the extra few miles. Our mom died in 2003 and it was like having a few minutes with her again. He seemed so happy that we came and we just loved him so it was all good! It was also nice to meet our cousin, Jenice who is caring for Uncle Joe. We had never met her in all these years...how sad is that?

This is our cousin, Jenice Dieringer.
I guess she got the last tiny gene! She is three years older than me!

3 comments:

Jen Stewart said...

Wow, they do look a like with their little smiles.

Jen Stewart said...

Wow, they do look a like with their little smiles.

laura.elizabeth said...

Wow, this is amazing to me. He looks exactly like grandma! He even has his head cocked with his hand of his chest- like she used to do. He looks so kind and loving- just like grandma. How sweet. I am so glad you got to visit with him- what a blessing for both of you.