A special man...

Gary Nederveld

Many of you reading this (if there are any of you out there) have probably already heard about the passing of my uncle Gary. He was my dad's twin brother (age 65) and a special uncle. He and my aunt Kathy have three kids who are close in age to my brother and I, so we were pretty close to them growing up. He died on Sept. 2 in a mountain biking accident while visiting his daughter and her family in Idaho. His death was tragic, sudden and very shocking. I wanted to write about him, even though I haven't ever done anything like this on this blog. I guess it's meant to be about family, and he is family. Uncle Gary was a generous, caring, hilarious, spiritual man. He made everyone smile and as they said in his funeral service this past Friday, he loved kids and never really grew up himself. One memory that will always stick out in my head was of our Christmas parties together as a family. Every Christmas, after a delicious meal, Uncle Gary would slip away unnoticed and sure enough, a few minutes later, Santa would arrive. He MADE everyone sit on his lap to get their gift, even Grandma Nederveld! He would have no problem embarrassing you and making you squirm just to get a laugh. At the service I learned that "Santa" made a lot of appearances over the years w/ friends and family. There are a lot of memories of this great man.

I looked at new baby Ellie several times over the past few days and thought about what a precious gift she is and what a precious gift life is. I thought about how we could have her for the next year or the next 65, as we had my uncle. I pray that both Hannah and Ellie will be healthy in life and grow to have the experiences of a lifetime no matter how long they are here. I also pray that Brian and I and the rest of our family will be blessed with sharing many of those experiences with them for a long time to come.

Sorry if this is sad, but it's what's been on my heart. Life and death...both precious. My uncle was taken way too soon, but I'm thankful that he is w/ Jesus right now, no doubt hamming it up and showing everyone a good time. We will all miss him dearly. If you think of it, please continue to pray for my aunt and cousins. I'm sure the next few days, weeks and months are going to be extremely difficult. Thanks.