Recently my cousin has moved in with our Great Uncle Doug. Now this was surprising to me because I had no idea that my cousin even knew Uncle Doug, other then seeing him at funerals, and weddings, you know the usually family events. Well it turns out that they had a relationship this whole time and my cousin decided to live at Uncle Doug's because of that relationship and because of the location of Uncle Doug's house to my cousins work.
When I found this out my first questions was, "when did you get to know Unc
le Doug, you are always hanging out with me during family things, and I don't know Uncle
Doug good enough to live with him?"
My cousins reply to this was well you should get to know him. He is a really cool guy.
Well all of this talk about great uncles and old people made me think of two books that I
love.
The first is Twenties Girl, by Sophie Kinsella. The main character, Lara, has an overactive imagination but when she starts to see her dead Great Aunt Sadie, she isn't sure what to think. I love this book because as Sadie "haunts" Lara, Lara sees that her great aunt was an amazing person and regrets that she didn't know Sadie when she was alive.
The next book it made me think of was Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. The first chapter in the book is an older man, floating between his past and the present. I loved seeing how this person grew from child to man then to an old man thinking back on his life and just wanting to do what he loved. You were in his head as an old man knowing his struggles and pains, wishing you could help him in some way.
So maybe after remembering these books, I will take my cousins advice and get to know Uncle Doug.
