From October 24, 2012 (edited):
This will depend on what exactly is "missing," and what exactly a "relative" is. I grew up with a family that didn't keep too close to one another, so the relatives I do know were the only ones in the area that wanted to see my mom. In other words, her four brothers. It was strange, but of what I can remember, they only talked to my mom about things that bothered them. One liked to visit to get away from his family, but then he moved to Green Bay because he liked the Packers so much. I liked him the most until I met Uncle David, the eldest.
Uncle David also has a family, but I never met any of them for an extended period of time. One of his sons drove me to college for orientation and that was the first and last time I remember seeing him (I don't even recall what we talked about during the 2-hour drive). Anyway... my uncles didn't do anything in my early life that helped me understand them at all, or, reversely, helped me understand myself either. I don't know if their treatment of me was a result of their hate for my father or not... but other than that, their interests were in things that I wasn't concerned about anyway. Cars, booze, hunting (guy things).
I don't really know anything else from there. Uncle David and Florian seemed the most sane, and that's probably why I like them the most. My Uncle Daniel used to drink chocolate milk a lot. He was a truck driver and had an adorable Saint Bernard he called Barnie. I kind of miss the dog.
The last uncle, who I would not miss even though he's had the most contact of all my uncles, is William. He is a man with nothing to lose for saying his mind, but he's also bitter about it while he's saying it. It's a pessimism so low to the earth that he'll lick the dirt off another's shoe, but complain about the taste of the dirt in his mouth. Then he'll bite their ankle. I mean, he watched my grandmother die from cancer, but you can't feel sorry a man who purposely tries to prove that he has no redeeming characteristics at all to anyone. He also took over my room in my childhood home and turned it into a pigsty. I sometimes wish he would disappear so he wasn't a bother to my brother (who took ownership of the old house), but it's exactly because of that reason that we help him so much.
Because he's family... I mean, I hope that's how it works.
- Anya
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