Thread: a recent gift
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Old 08-03-2002, 11:06 AM
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Default a recent gift

Posted By: Keith O'Leary

My Mom's uncle will be 88 later this year. He has always been very diligent when it came to his health. He walks every day, watches what he eats, and never hesitated going to the doctor when he was suspicious of something.
His diet consists mostly of a rotating menu of chicken based preparations. Being on a fixed income, he buys chicken with the skin on, removes it, cooks it separately, and faithfully brings it Sunday mornings as a treat to my dog. In later years, I've limited my dog's intake of this artery clogging stuff to being just enough to intice her into finishing what is left in her dish from my early morning feeding of her.
My great uncle's wife died about 10 years ago, they never had any children, and he only has a small handfull of close friends (all are his age). His driving is limited to our house, his local close friends houses, and the grocery store. My Dad and I share duty taking him to and from the doctor when needed.
Being an avid trap shooter at one time, a small and large game hunter, and always having outdoor related interests, its on those Sunday visits that he sometimes brings things for me and my Dad as he feels somewhat gratuitous and has no one else to give the stuff to. Being hunters ourselves, items have included guns, ammo, reloading equipment, old sports related paper, foreign coins, nazi arm bands and related, a nice P-38, etc.
He is a WWII veteran who was involved in the Battle of the Bulge. After the battle and WWII came to an end, the troops were entertained by groups of movie stars and other celebraties who toured Europe as a good will gesture for the government. On a Sunday last year, he brought the scanned piece of paper and presented it to me. As he related the story (and I should probably verify it again with him), and as best as I can remember it, these 5 shared a movie in a theater in Holland with my great uncle and the men in his troop during one of these tours after the war. My uncle shared a dinner with them after the movie and got this piece of paper signed by them.

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