Lost and Found

Dear Jack,

The recent loss of your Uncle James has your sister a little confused. You see, we told her that Uncle James had died and that a lot of people were sad. We explained a lot of things as best we could, but then we fell into saying that we had "lost" Uncle James. Your sister seemed to understand, but then when we picked Uncle Jonathan up from the airport, your sister very excitedly exclaimed, "I found him, I found Uncle James!"

They do look alike, your two uncles. But we had to explain to her that this was Uncle Jonathan, not Uncle James. Persisting, your sister maintained that we had "lost Uncle James" but we had "found Uncle Jonathan." Not wanting to argue the point, I let her continue to repeat the phrases.

By the end of the week, though, I began to see the wisdom in her thinking. We have lost Uncle James and although I firmly believe we will see him again in Eternity, it just isn't going to be the same and we miss him terribly. At the same time, it feels as though we have connected anew with your Uncle Jonathan. It has been almost three years since we last saw him and we have all changed in that time and spending a week with him in this time of grief helped all of us to reconnect and affirm those lasting family ties. We have lost Uncle James, but at least we found Uncle Jonathan.

It doesn't keep us from missing your Uncle James, but it makes me feel better to know you will have an uncle around who will love you and help teach you things and tell us stories about when your dad was a little boy.

Love,
Mom