My Uncle Jim

This photo was taken at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains. I was less than a year old in the Summer of 1954. The attention I got from my God Father, my Uncle Jim, would turn out to be the most nurturing and important fatherly attention I ever had. He had the gift for caring and for taking the world very lightly. I always felt like I did my siblings a favor by sharing My Uncle Jim with them.
He passed away in 1997 at age 65 from leukemia.
The year before he left I flew up to Sonoma by myself and spent 6 days with Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jim.
It was a rare time, the only time actually, that I had them all to myself.
It was typical January weather for Sonoma County, cold and rainy some days, but sunny and beautiful on others. We did a lot of driving to all of our special spots; Bodega Bay for lunch and Napa for wine tasting. Also the champagne winery near their home in Sonoma. I will treasure that time for all of my life.

I was studying poetry at the time at Cal. State San Bernardino under B.H. Fairchild. This is an assignment
poem that I wrote when I returned from that trip.

SIX DAYS TO SAY GOOD-BYE

We drive through tufted, velvet hills,
Under heavy gray-silk skies,
Taste red wine and eat rich meals,
Only six days to say good-bye.

Sleeping vines of summer wines
Stand bare in perfect rows.
Will he see the Spring sun shine,
Or blooms of mustard grow?

Talk is tender, false with hope,
We plan a June reunion
We walk along green coast slopes
sprouting purple lupine.

The dormant Winter clings to life
in glowing-beaded meadows.
I take its lesson as a light
to illuminate my shadows.

copyright 1996 Eileen Osgood
aka Eileen Keister