Reply #16: Quite a lot. [View All]

[Chovexani]

My favorite uncle passed from AIDS complications when I was a child, and we were very close. He chose to spend his final days at home in my mom's care, because he hated hospitals. We were having a very hard time financially at the time (Mom was a single parent trying to put my sister through college and me through private school and my dad was a deadbeat) and nearly lost our house. When my uncle died, he stayed with us for quite a while. His prescence was very palpable to me, but my mom could never feel it. We used to talk all the time, and then one day he just left and didn't come back. I don't think he could pass on until he knew we were going to be alright. Once we were, he could rest.

Something else that happened...when he died my second cousin was around two years old and didn't really know him. But when the family went down south for the funeral, my little cousin kept asking who "the tall man" (my uncle was 6'10"). He would just break out giggling for no reason. Cousin's 17 now and we've talked about it since then, and he swears my uncle was making funny faces at him (my uncle was VERY goofy).