Me and my shadow

Some people cast enormous shadows across our lives. My uncle was one of them.

Today would have been his birthday. It's the second one since he died in November 2010, and the hardest so far.

Partly because he was my mom's baby brother and I just lost her. Partly because he had been so sick for so long (Parkinson's Disease) that his death was, in some ways, a welcome relief from his suffering.

But now that time has gone by and I have recovered from the reality of his passing, I'm left with his long, wide shadow.

I miss the terrible puns, told with such joy. And his athleticism -- before disease overtook him, he was good at every sport he tried, from swimming to running to skiing. And his smarts -- by and large we are not a family of deep thinkers but he had both intuition and brains (if not wisdom). And his curiosity -- he was self taught but expert on everything from numismatics to tropical fish.

When I was a little girl, I thought he brought magic with him every time he came to visit. I miss the magic most of all.