Uncle Otto
I’d like to give you a glimpse into some of the lighthearted interactions between Reegan and Uncle Otto in the last few years.
You have to know Uncle Otto. He has a dry sense of Folkerts humour. He’s an 83-year-old man that has been a bachelor all his life, living on his own for the last ten years. If you’ve seen the movie “Secondhand lions,” you kinda know uncle Otto.
Many flyers come in the mail, cluttering my counters and causing an endless paper jam. One such was the Princess Auto flyer. I was doing my clean-up, and I asked, “Hey Art, do you want to keep this Princess Auto flyer?”
Reegs in the background just heard what she heard… she asks incredulously, “Princess Otto???”
Sharing the funny on Facebook (yes, Uncle Otto does Facebook), he commented, “Thanks Reegan for thinking of me!”
We are often Uncle Ottos’ ride to church. We pick him up, and he and Reegs share the back seat. We’ve heard some interesting chats in the 4 minutes it takes to get to church.
Reegs “Soo uncle Otto.. you talk much?”
Uncle Otto “who me? Nooo… I’m more the strong silent type.”
The other Sunday, Reegs was coming down with a cold. It was mentioned as we were making our way to church. Uncle Otto’s advice to reegan:
“You know what you do to get rid of a cold, Reegan?”
“You take a shot of whiskey.”
“And if that doesn’t help, you take two.”
And that … is some of our rides to church.
Uncle Otto has a kind heart. The other day he had a fall and broke his hip. He was in a lot of pain, but when he saw Art in the emergency room, he asked about Reegan, wondering how her cold was. Would that we think of others like that, even in our own time of need.
That was written a few years back. Since then, things took a hard turn for Uncle Otto. He spent months in the hospital/extended care with a broken hip. Covid then came upon us, making matters worse with isolation. Eventually, it turned out he would need a new home where he could get more care. He settled in and began making friends. He was well-liked in Orchard manor, what with his good sense of humour.
When he was diagnosed with lung cancer, he settled on the plan not to get treatment but to live out the rest of his days as best he could.
Art would say, often when he went in to see Uncle Otto, he would be listening to sermons or music. He was reconciling his mind to what lay ahead of him and finding peace with it.
Often when people die, words are said that are meant to comfort; “they are in a better place,” or “they are now at peace.” These words are sometimes said without real conviction behind them. Do we really believe our own words of comfort? We can if we believe the words in the Bible;
“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:2-3, 6 NIV
Uncle Otto didn’t depend on perfection to get him to heaven. He would be the first to tell you that perfect was not in his vocabulary. He was assured of salvation by his faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and in that, he took comfort. In that knowledge, he could rest assured that he was safe in the arms of Jesus.
