The minute I saw this writing prompt I thought of my moms uncle, Uncle Glen Medlin. Uncle Glen was a fun uncle to my mom and her siblings and cousins, and he continued that tradition to my generation.
Uncle Glen was born on May 21 of 1919, a twin and his twin was born dead. He never married and lived in that same house until his death in 1991. Talk about close to home!
Glen worked hard on the farm with his brothers and his dad. He attended the Lone star School and went through the 8th grade there. He walked to school because it was "Close to Home".
Glen enlisted in the Army during WWII and was sent to New Guinea in the Pacific theater. He never talked about it but when we went to the National cemetery in Hawaii we got a real education in how bad the fighting was there. Glen's dad died in January of 1943 and the Army sent him home so he could run the family farm for his mother, farming was considered vital to the war effort. It was the farthest he had ever been from home.
I imagine all bachelor uncles and spinster aunts engender theories and stories about possible lost loves that left them pining so they never married? In Glens case it was actually true! He had a girl friend when he left for the war and when he came home she had married someone else...like a movie! He stayed on the farm and ran it for his mother till she died in 1962. He then farmed until his own death in a tractor accident in 1991
Uncle Glen loved children and would play and horse around with us kids. He was famous later in life, in his late 60's and early 70's for bringing around a gallon of fresh cream when he would drop in to visit and you knew he was hoping you'd make homemade ice cream and of course invite him for dinner! He told me "The army done sent me halfway round the world...I looked around and decided I didn't need to see anything else so I never left home again!"
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| Uncle Glen and my youngest in 1989 |
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