u/13toycar

Stalingrad

A highlight of each year growing up was our vacation to California, to see our grandparents and uncle. He was a natural goofball. always cracking jokes and making everyone laugh. He had an awesome job, too, driving steam trains for a historical railroad. We loved hearing his stories about trains breaking down and trying to make it up the mountain. I always used to wish I could see him and my grandparents more often. 

Then life happened. He got married and moved away, but the marriage was bad and short-lived. She took him for all he was worth. His bounced between states for the next decade. He got another rail job in Colorado and things were looking up, until the management changed and screwed him over. Another move, another crappy job. We didn’t hear or see much of him during these years, for different reasons. There were some hard feelings between him and my Dad about things. But for a long time, I had no idea where my uncle was or what he was doing. I knew he was alive, and that was it.  

Eventually, something sparked a change of heart. This month he finally came to Washington State where I and my family live. We love having him here. He doesn’t want to move far again. And for the first time in my life, I shared a beer with my uncle. As a person of faith I see God’s hand in our lives bringing us together, but even if God had nothing to do with this, I don’t care. My uncle is home. He can stay forever.

… with an abnormally high population. They question the residents about this. All the townsfolk have the same answer: “It’s Jacque’s fault! Jacque! He drives the train, and every morning at 4 he blasts the whistle long and loud as he comes through town.” Then someone adds, “At that hour it’s too early to get up and too late to go back to bed. What else is there to do?”