If you’ve been reading my posts, you will know the people who inspire me. The greats like, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Rumi and to a lesser extent, Mandy Hale, Brene Brown, Paul Coelho and too many more to list here.
However, I have also written about my dad who inspired me in ways that I rebelled against as a young girl but later learned what great lessons those were. One other person that I haven’t talked much about is my uncle. He was a man of God, and he was the reason why I spent a lot of my growing up years in the church and even staying there during the school holidays. It was spooky but that’s for another time.
Anyway Uncle Ed could give Ralph de Bricassart a run for the money. I remember the women swooning as he got up to give his sermon. The thing about Uncle Ed was that he was all about God and his ways were simple, just like the woman he married.. He married a Plain Jane. It was love they said but I couldn’t understand it. They remained married until he passed a few years ago.
I remember walking in one Sunday afternoon after a glorious day outside playing in the mud and covered in the same from head to toe. I walked in to find him sitting there with his eyes trained on me. I smiled showing the gap where my tooth was missing! I liked shocking people at the time. The look he gave me was painful and it seemed to say, “This one is trouble and she is not going to amount to much!” A week before the meeting, I had decided to ask dad the all important question in a belligerent way. I asked, “DO YOU THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU CARRY A BIBLE AND GO TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY, YOU WILL GO TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE?!!” Let’s just say it didn’t go well and he didn’t believe in sparing the rod either! I think my uncle knew about my belligerence and hence the look.
However, I was mesmerized by him. The stories he told were captivating and sometimes shocking especially the ones about the exorcisms he had performed. Let me tell you, if you didn’t believe in the paranormal, you will after listening to those!
He started out as a pastor but worked his way up to the very top. It meant I had to behave like the niece of a well-respected person in the community. I was roped or rather forced into teaching Bible study. I DID! Then I moved away and didn’t see him again until my mom’s funeral. I didn’t know at the time of the service that she had been murdered, just that I felt incredible pain within. Sitting at the front of the hall with my ex, I stared at the casket and wondered why it was closed. Then the pain got too much and the room excruciatingly claustrophobic. I needed to escape but the only route I had was to look up at the cross on the wall. The huge one of Christ crucified on the cross. As I stared up at it, my back straightened and I felt power within. It said, “You can do this.” Then something else made me turn and there sitting a few rows behind me was my uncle and our eyes met. This time there was something else etched on his face. There was pain and sadness, but there was something more. It seemed to say, “Now, you understand.”
What came afterwards was all a blur. The finding out, the rage, the anger, but somehow that instance in church and our hearts touching gave me the courage to weather a storm of the deepest kind.
Uncle Ed was an unpretentious man but there was a power within him that I can’t explain. He walked with God and his life was dedicated to teaching others how to do exactly that. I looked up to him and admired how far he had come and how he stood with both feet planted firmly on the ground. He taught me humility, he taught me to have faith, and to stand tall when life cuts you down to size.
I wonder what he would say if he saw me now? Will there be a smile on his face, will he be proud of how far I’ve come and will he change his opinion of me!
I hope so.
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