Farewell Uncle Joe

Anna is serenaded by Uncle Joe
It was with great sadness that we learned of Uncle Joe's passing on April 5 after a long illness.

Anna was able to see Uncle Joe on Easter Sunday and is still trying to reconcile how a week later he can be gone.  Like the many families and friends of Uncle Joe's, Anna always enjoyed visiting him.  He always had a joke or funny story to tell her (tonight she was re-telling one of Uncle Joe's stories about a runaway hot dog).  He also taught her a lot about training and caring for dogs.  Anna is concerned about how sad Bonnie must be now that he is gone.

Anna joined the rest of the family in New York for the funeral services.  One of the bright spots of any funeral is the chance to see family and friends that have not gathered in years.  Anna enjoyed seeing her cousins and promptly attached herself to Andrew and Luke.  Cousin James gave a very moving tribute to his Dad at the funeral and Aunt Mary sang a beautiful piece with two members of the choir (Anna was quite impressed with this and exclaimed "I didn't know Aunt Mary could sing!").


We headed back to Virginia following the conclusion of the service.  After taking a break at a New Jersey rest stop, we returned to our car to find it surrounded by two large van loads of young priests (there must have been about 20 of them).  For a brief moment, we paused and wondered if Uncle Joe was trying to send us some sort of message.  If so, we are not sure what it was.

Anna has many wonderful memories of Uncle Joe and will likely hear us quoting him frequently. 
Uncle Joe gives Anna her 1st Thanksgiving lesson

He will be missed, but never forgotten.

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