My last phone conversation with Uncle Francis

A few days ago I called up my Uncle Francis. I had actually intended to call him last week or maybe even as long as a month ago because my Uncle Rich had called me telling he was asking for my address because my Aunt Dot was looking to send me something. Anyway I didn't get back to Uncle Francis a couple days ago. He had already gotten my address but I wanted to talk to him for some reason. So I guess my call was kind of random. At any rate it's a good thing I called because as it turned out, he died today.

What did we talk about?

I think I mentioned the snow and he, being from Florida, told me a story which I had heard him relate before. Actually first he started in with the, "Oh yeah it's cold down here too you know I think it went down to 40 the other day. You know last week I was getting worried because the air conditioning broke. I'm standing outside right now with my shorts on and yeah I feel a bit of a breeze."

You know that kind of thing.

Actually no, first he started with, "Oh yeah we gotta lot a snow down here in Florida too.... except it's cocaine."

Then came the teasing about the weather.

 Then came the story, "When I was 10 years old, I was getting off of the elevated train in Philly and I stepped into an icy puddle. Frozen on top but not enough to stop the water from soaking right through to my shoe. I swore. And I knew, at that moment, when I was only ten years old, that I was going to live my adult life in a warm climate." he had told me this story shortly after I went down to Florida for a Christmas Visit after my mother had died. Apparently he continued to talk to my mom after she had died. He went on with his story though.
"What I didn't know when I was 10 was that the first warm climate that I would live in....would be Vietnam. There's always an asterix to everything."

I told the story about how a couple miles from the house there was a little Chinese Community and how strange that was to me, and how the restaurant Grace went to beat the hell out of anything in Boston. We talked about when I took him to Chinatown Cage up here and got 6 dollar duck and the food court (DPD) which is gone. And then he told me he went to some place with his wife out in California and how they

"They had the thing where they come out the kitchen with the stuff in the carts. I don't know what the hell they call it."

"Oh Dim sum?"

"Yeah yeah! Thats' it.. Anyway that was pretty good."

Mostly we talked about our kids, which was new for us because it was only the last three times that I talked with him that I had children.

"You still doing the Kung Fu thing?" he asked
"Yeah but mostly I just teach my kids."
"Well that's cool. At least you don't have to worry they come home with a bloody nose. You know my youngest Danny, he didn't need Kung Fu though." and he related some other stories I had even heard as a child and ended with, "Now he's 27 though. Can you believe that? Can you imagine having your youngest child be 27?"

I said that I couldn't.

"Neither can I but here I am and he is."

A mechanic that had to show up to do some work or other did and so we had to go. We said goodbye. I could always call later to talk. I always enjoyed the story telling. I just never seemed to call as often any more. But as I said goodbye it was like I would call more often, maybe next week.

Every time I come away from talking to my Aunts and Uncles, the brothers and sisters of my mother, well first of all I guess they are all different people, but I get a renewed sense of who I am, which is completely different than who I am as a person usually. Ehhh but that's for another blog post. The only thing is that now that Uncle Francis is dead it's like yet another part of myself isn't gone so much, but it's like that side of me is not a living person anymore, but a part of me. Or I acknowledge that it has to be a part of me. I don't  really know. But when my mom died I started to get more in touch with that side of me. Is that what I'm trying to say? Yeah well the same is true of Uncle Francis.

Well everyone likes to say rest in peace. But I don't know if I believe that. I plan on talking to Uncle Francis more often now that he's dead. After all my mom is too. Go and raise hell. I imagine that will be more fun in that other plane. And I imagine I'd have more a chance of feeling a presence that way. Well in any case, whatever a soul does, if there is a soul, and I believe there is, enjoy yourself.

2015 Gund Kwok Boston Chinatown CNY Lion & Dragaon Dance Parade

2015 Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Lion Dance

2015 Lion Dance (Boston Lunar New Year) Gund Kwok

Chinese New Year 2015 -- Boston Chinatown [II of IV]

Noah's first lost tooth.

Despite a slight cough yesterday, probably from a weakened immune system due to Lion Dancing in the snow, followed by over stimulation and a lot of chow mein and fried rice I sent Noah off to school, protesting or not. Then he lost his tooth. Unfortunately he literally lost it after taking it from his mouth. Shoot! If I had kept him home we would have that tooth. Did he eat it? Did he just throw it away because he had others? Mommy was pretty upset because she definitely wanted it as a souvenir.
It turned out Noah's teacher, Ms. Shea, was also sick that day, and so the normal protocol might not have been the same.

But then today, somehow, miraculously, Miss Shea found the tooth! In fact it was put in a plastic bag and placed in Noah's folder. Upon arriving home (again after much protest because despite having stayed out longer than any of the other children they hadn't had enough) I tooth the sacred relic, which was placed in a clear plastic bag and taped to the folder (not just with any old scotch tape find you, but strong packing tape) well I took this treasure of treasures away from Jonah who wanted to play with it, and taped it to the door.

"Nobody touches this until Mommy gets home." I said. I do not put my foot down with many things. But here I did.

Noah's Lion Dance Chinatown adventure

This year was easier for me. Our team isn't necessarily bigger in terms of number of people. It's more like the young kids are now teens and are not only willing but eager to do Lion Head, drum, and pretty much anything. Some kids who came earlier got tired real fast so i was glad I didn't bring Noah in the morning. Those kids went back to the school with the baby head about half way through and then as we were almost finished I began to get worried about finishing before Noah came out and had a turn at lion dancing. With creeping horror I imagined his wrath. Well, Grace and Noah drove out as it began to snow and I ran back to the school to get the lion head and to get Noah and Jonah and Grace. The only problem now was I had misplaced my team. For some reason I saw everyone else besides our team. I even started asking friends I knew in the other teams, which would usually be a no-no but hey, the rules change when you have to deal with tantrums.
Noah was pretty mad when he heard the parade was almost over. But almost over is a relative term. We caught up with Jing and the team at the C-Mart near Hei La Moon. Basically we still had an hour left of lion dancing. Passing our school to hit some of the stores by Tai Tung that we had missed in the morning, Jonah was dropped off with Grace at the school. The other teens were basically watching Noah and holding his tail, then I realized I could just go under the little tail and stick Noah on my shoulders for the walking parts. That would save his energy for the actual lion dancing. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that earlier. Of course I think my shoulders became more sore from this section of the day than the entirety of the lion dancing activity that preceded it. But Noah had his Chinatown adventure and we had our Chinese New Year reunion. I really like this little tradition of meeting everyone in the streets of Chinatown, and it has gotten better every year as the teams become closer and closer to each other. It's like a giant family reunion that takes place on the street. It really must be something for a child.
Hopefully next year there won't be snow, so we can actually bring a wagon or something that I could pull Noah and Jonah  in.