My Nephew

I have bunches of nieces and nephews. Many of them have children and even grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is one of the glories of having a large family.

I was especially close to my husband's brother's children. We all lived in the big city away from the rest of the family.

His youngest son was only a couple of years old when my first child was born. My son has often said that his cousin was the closest he had to a big brother.

The kids spent a lot of time together. My older two boys would spend nights at their aunt and uncle's house. My niece and nephews spent nights at our house.

My nephew was an ornery child. He always had that gleam of mischief in his eyes. He had a knack for troublesome behavior.

I am not saying he was a bad child. He was just adventurous and did not always think things through.

He taught my boys to swear and what the swear words meant. It is not the thing to do but I admit I washed their mouths out with soap. They still used those awful words.

When my nephew started school my sister-in-law had her last one in school. (She had two more daughters a few years later.) One day she was at the kitchen sink washing breakfast dishes. She looked up and out the window.

There was her 5 year old son running down the alley with about a half dozen older children including her other two. She ran out and chased them down.

My nephew did not like school so he formed a "skip school" club. He talked all those older kids into skipping school with him. It turned out that those children had not been in school for much of the year.

When he was older my nephew and I worked together. A friend had a scrap yard at several locations. The two of us worked at the smallest of the three.

We worked well together. The work was done and we had fun doing it. He could make me laugh so hard.

He married and had two children, a boy and a girl. As happens he was busy with his family and we did not see as much of him.

His wife died of cancer. I am not sure who raised his daughter. He had his son. My sister-in-law helped take care of him.

Unfortunately my nephew started using drugs. I do not know how bad it was. By that I mean that I do not know whether he was addicted. I suspect he was.

He spent a couple of years in prison for auto theft. At least he had no access to drugs.

My nephew got out of prison last Thursday. He was released to live at a girlfriend's house. She is a drug user and my brother-in-law did not want him to go there.

Over the weekend my nephew overdosed. It happens to a lot of prisoners who were drug users. After about a day he was pronounced dead.

I will miss that cute little boy who lived life to its fullest. He made a stupid decision and broke a lot of hearts.