Larry Templeman

We had a storm blow in this week. Hurricane Leslie. And as she blew in, my uncle blew out.
I come from a very small family as they are reckoned here in Newfoundland. My mom only had the one brother. I got called Larry by my Nan T more times than I can count. I always chuckled about that.
Larry was born  and raised in St. John's but lived out on Mockbeggar in Bonavista for most of my lifetime. I saw him and Aunt Linda and my cousins Bonita, Krista ( Krissy) and Paul a good bit over the years.
Now in the past year or so I saw Uncle Larry more often than I did. He stopped by The Compound on his way to and from from Bonavista to town. He brought me a beautiful sealskin for me to make some boots out of. I had made a smurfberry cake that day and gave him and mom and dad some hunks for the road. He was a tall drink of water and I figgered a few calories might do him some good. Mom told me after that when she passed the bag to him in the backseat he eyeballed it and asked what kind it was cause it looked like what Nan T ( his mom) used to make. Sure 'nuff it was and he was impressed. Ate a hunk with fussels cream when he got home.
He had a couple of lovebirds; offspring of Olive and Popeye. We put em in a wee box for their trip. They got up to a lot of mischief I think. He was quite the artist and even when he was sick he drew me a picture of one of the birds.
This year I was told a few funny stories as well. I always joke about my Kramer hair especially when windy if my hair is pulled back. Well there were a number of pictures of me when I was little with my curls all brushed out. I could never figure out why. Well apparently Uncle Larry was the culprit. He'd always brush my hair and Nan would tutt tut at him and say Larry! What are you doing to that poor youngster's hair. That makes me laugh.
And there was a picture of me perched up in a boat. I had always thought why the hell was the boat so high in the air and why was I in it. Now Uncle Larry was really tall and I was higher than him in the boat. But apparently I wanted to be in the boat AND in the picture BY MYSELF so Uncle Larry coopied down so I couldn't see him and have a fit. Which is why he was smiling. Too funny.
Uncle Larry fought a hell of a fight over the last while. He had as many lives as a cat. Every time he would be on deaths door I would say...yeah right he's not going anywhere yet. He waited till there was a good exciting weather day. Nothing boring for him on the last going off.
He'll live on in the stories, memories and pictures of his wife, sister, children and extended family like me.
Gonna listen to some Johnny Cash later *wink*