By Andrea Walsh
The one person who has impacted my life and has been one of the most important people in my life was my uncle Chris. Every word he said I took to my heart…I wanted to be just like him. He was the greatest uncle ever. He would have done anything for me.
It was a cold day in January, and I was 10. I had the day planned to spend with my uncle and his girlfriend Shelly. He was in college in Vermillion. He picked me up at my house around noon. We were heading up to his dorm in Vermin, but I got hungry and he stopped at a gas station and he bought me a candy bar…but it had almonds in it. So I just spit the almonds out onto my hand …he didn’t know that I didn’t like them, but when he looked back at me and saw that I was spitting them out into my hand, he said I was the greatest kid ever just because I didn’t complain! Put a nice big smile on my face.
We made it to his dorm nicely, dropped our stuff off and, then as I was putting my bag down he told me he had a surprise for me. We got in the car; he didn’t tell me were we were going, but it was taking forever it seemed. So I lay down in the back seat and fell asleep. He woke me up about 45 minutes later and we were at this big building, and he said "you want to go watch some basketball?" And if anyone knew my uncle Chris and I if you put us two together with basketball nothing stopped us. So I just got right up and we ran inside. He picked me up and pointed to this team that was huge, and he said "that’s my team."
I said " I didn’t know you were a coach uncle Chris"
"yup sure am," he replied as we walked over to them and I got to meet them. Shelly and I went up into the stands and watched my uncle coach. About every ten minutes of the game I would stand up and wave to him. He would wave back to me then I would go and sit with Shelly, She and I cheered loudly the whole game.
After the game we were driving home. AAs we were driving, my uncle pointed up to that big Indian, and that was the first time I had ever seen that. I thought it was so cool. Now every time I see that I think of that night we spent together. Once we got to his dorm Shell made my bed on the upper level of his room and theirs on the bottom. I brought my Nintendo up so we played that, and he ordered cheeses balls and pizza. Uncle Chris and Shelly were just amazed at how much I could eat. I fell asleep with a piece of pizza in my hand.
Next morning I woke up before everyone. I just lay there thinking about how much fun I had. Next thing I know Shell’s alarm clock went off, and she smoked her hand on the wall by her head, and I laughed, but I didn’t let her hear me. Then I jumped on her and she appeared from the under level. She caught me of course and swung me around. My uncle got up and got ready as I continued the Nintendo game from last night! It was freezing out that morning, so he started the car for Shelly and me. We got in the car and uncle Chris said " put your seatbelt on and hang on!" I gripped Shelly’s hand as we did two cookies on the ice! It was a blast.
As he dropped me off at my house, I thanked them for all the fun, and I told them I couldn’t wait until next time. That week my Uncle went on a vacation with his friends. My grandma got a call from Tex (one of my uncle’s friends.) it wasn’t a good message. my uncle had died from a heart disease we have in our family. My Uncle Chris was the one person who I will always cherish and love with all my heart. He put so much into my life and I will never forget him.