My partner Sally’s uncle Joe died this past Monday from complications of pancreatic cancer and other ailments at the age of 83. Along with Sally’s dad Reuben and their older brother Aaron, “Yoseph”, as his siblings and other close family affectionately called him, was one of those larger-than-life characters that are a feature I think of many big vibrant family clans.

I never myself called him that, with my shyer demeanor and being of a younger generation more likely to address him with the honorific “Uncle”. But with his family in town this weekend for his burial service last Friday in Culver City, “Yoseph”, aka “Uncle Joe”, got what seemed to me like a pretty good sendoff… full of remembrance, songs, tears and a fair amount of smiles and laughter too. Continue reading →