I posted this on Facebook but I thought the rest of the family and friends may like to read. I want to thank everyone for the messages and texts and calls I didn't answer because I didn't feel like speaking... I don't want to say this year has been terrible as there have been some great moments but it has been very challenging. Early this morning my Uncle Merle was called home. I write a lot as a form of healing and in times like this as a celebration of life. Like my Uncle Gene many people knew my Uncle Merle...what can I say we are a family of nice, funny and friendly people. As I posted earlier Uncle Merle has always been at every important moment of mine and my sisters lives. Whenever there was an event or a party without a doubt Uncle Merle and Auntie Zennia were there. Uncle Merle helped out at St. George's Ukrainian Church in Oshawa and often tended bar at the events and so friends of mine and my sisters knew him too as everyone's Uncle Merle. There were so many get together's at Uncle Merle's house. Whether it was Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, birthday's, anniversary's or just a mid-week drop in for dinner and drinks. I remember falling asleep on the silky brown couch time and time again...drifting off to the sound of the men laughing and playing cards or playing pool and the women drinking coffee in the dining room. It would be around 11pm we would be woken from sleep to get on our coats to head home and we did that for the first few times and then Jennifer and I learned about the Ukrainian goodbye. We all go to the door and hug and kiss goodbye and then talk and then talk some more and then more coffee gets brewed and then lunch is served - kolbassa, cheese, tomatoes, bread, pickles and the like...we would leave closer to 1am most of the time. I sit here in my dimly lit home in silence and I can still hear him. It is going to take me a long time to live in this world without my Uncle Merle. He had 84 wonderful years on this Earth and I had 38 years with him and so, so many memories. He has been proud of me, upset with me, confused by me but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he loved me so much. During our last visit I got to tell him about my career and my recent attaboys (as my Dad calls them), showed him lots of pictures of Emilia (his great niece) and got to look at him one last time and take it all in. I got to say I love you and see you soon, not goodbye. I feel like I just found comfort from Uncle Gene's passing and now another male role model has gone home...now Heaven has Baba, Gido, Uncle Bob, Uncle Gene and Uncle Merle...and I bet they are all sitting around the kitchen table playing cards. I love you more than you know my Uncle, my surrogate Gido and my buddy. xxxooo