Little Boys Become Old Men

Yesterday I did what I hate to do. I have a site on Ancestry.com where I am tracing back my family tree. That I enjoy. But yesterday I had to add a date to someone. A date I don't like adding in. It is the date of someone's death. It is my mother's only "full" brother. He was 16 months older than she and they always shared a special bond. Funny, they were so different. He was a blond and she a brunette. They say he was a sweet child and Mom was, well let's say adventuresome. I think you can see in the picture, even when they were babies how different in looks they were. He took after his father (who died just a few days after Mom was born), and she after her mother.
I gather they were always good friends and allies. I love the story of their youth when they thought they were doing a great community service by getting rid of the local "bad" driver. He was an old man who couldn't see straight and drove down the middle of the road. They heard everyone complain about him. So they got the idea (and I do believe the instigator was my mother) of stretching a rope across the road, wrecking the car and then the old man wouldn't be a hazard to anyone anymore. Crazy kids, they actually did it. They knew what time he came down the road, so they stretched the rope across and laid hiding in the field to see the results of their "good deed". Unfortunately, before he meandered along, the local "cop" hit their rope and went spinning. Madder than an old wet hen at the damage (couldn't have been much), he went looking for the perpetrator. I don't know how he knew it was Uncle Bill and Mom  (I don't think they had criminal records,but I do think it happened on their property), and went looking for them or their family. He found their very strict and austere step-father. I think they both knew they were in for it. Lucky for them, he hated the cop and thought it was funny. He didn't even punish them. I still can't believe my mother wrecked a police car and lived to tell the story! Uncle Bill must have been a good guy to forgive her for all the trouble she got him into! I had never seen the photo to the right until recently. Uncle Bill is the oldest in the photo, the big blonde. Funny, all of Mom's brothers were blonde and her sister was dark like her.
Uncle Bill's signature is on Mom and Dad's wedding license, since they eloped. Uncle Bill and his girlfriend (later his wife) went with them. I have to be grateful for that, don't I? I have lots of images of him in my head, but few pictures. In this family photo, Mom is on the left end (standing) and Uncle Bill is on the back row on the far right. He was the only guy with a full head of hair, his step-brothers taking after their father. I think this must have been in the sixties (early).
Truth be told, I sometimes had a hard time calling him Uncle Bill because Mom always called him by his childhood name, Willy G. (His real name was William Goodman, named after his father and maternal grandfather). Once he commented how he hated that nickname, so I made an effort to call him Uncle Bill.
It's been several years since I've seen him, as I am not good about visiting relatives and I do live far, far away. I did talk with him on the phone whenever I was in the states, as he and Mom talked regularly.
After his wife died of Alzheimer's disease, some time back, I thought it was cool that he took a cruise to Alaska so he could say he had visited all 50 states. When he came back from Christmas in California (with his son and grandchildren) last year, my little boy Uncle who had become and "old" man, was sick with pneumonia. He never really fully recovered and so a second bout of pneumonia in July meant that yesterday he fell into a forever sleep. I have felt a deep sense of sadness and loss, most especially for my mom. It is hard to lose our elders. It is hard to lose our loved ones. It is hard to see little boys become old men.