Uncle Ralph

A link to a post from forever ago.... but some of our sweetest moments were spent with these two... Uncle Ralph went to be with Jesus Monday afternoon and to say that he will be missed is the understatement of the year.... these two have poured their entire lives into both Husband and I... our baby girls, our parents, our siblings and our church family over the past 50 something years....  

I don't know that I have ever blogged about Pastor P's retirement party before but there was a moment during the time when people were sharing memories when CountryDad was standing up there with Uncle Ralph and Pastor P as leaders of our church and my heart was swelling with pride that 1) my DAD was up there and 2) that I was so blessed to have these men as mentors to Husband, and as examples in my life and I knew I was loved by them. 

This guy was just a treasure to so many... spice cake, biscuits with molasses, jams, and his wife's oatmeal... hee hee hee....years ago we had a Valentine's dinner at church and we did a version of the newlywed game with three couples who had been married for various amounts of time. Auntie Joyce and Uncle Ralph were the veterans of the bunch and one of the questions was "what is your favorite thing your wife makes"... I think Auntie Joyce must have put some sort of one her delicious baked goods that she is so well known for... but Uncle Ralph wrote.... "oatmeal"... oh the place went crazy with laughter... she was so mad and it made it all so much more fun.... 

Husband remembered trips when he was a teenager that Uncle Ralph was just always involved in and tucking him into fishing and hunting that are such a huge part of who he is today. 

Our girls loved sharing meals, (a post about Sweet Moments where you can see him peeking behind...), new flavors of Oreos and any time we could with them. We are going to have a huge hole in our family heart for a long long time...