Uncle Robert

The Boys, originally uploaded by IThinkYouShould.

When I think of my Uncle Robert, I hear him laughing.

My dad is the oldest of 5--4 boys (all within 8 years of each other) and 1 girl (16 years younger than my dad). Next was Robert, then James, then Steve. You can imagine the trouble four boys got into growing up in the 50's and 60's in LA--Lower Alabama. My grandfather was a no nonsense disciplinarian and when one of them failed to own up to any wrongdoing, he would line them all up and dole out punishment one by one until they caved. Uncle James caved by saying, "Wobbie did it!" This exclamation has become such a part of our family's lexicon that my dad doled it out to me yesterday when I was blaming my errand inefficiency on a store's closing. "Wobbie did it," he told me--right about the time Uncle Robert went out to mow his lawn 100's of miles away.

Unfortunately, mowing his lawn is the last thing Wobbie did. He collapsed and died yesterday, leaving a lot of life un-lived and a lot of people who loved him very much behind.