My Uncle, the Star

The summer solstice has always been a bittersweet day, in my mind. Summer is just getting off to a start, yet the days are starting to get shorter. Added now to the mix: the now-anniversary of when our family lost my dear, sweet Uncle Andy.

In some ways, it feels longer than a year, in other ways shorter. Regardless, it still feels bad.

Although he had two dozen nieces and nephews, each one claims to have been his favorite, and each one can say truthfully that he was their favorite.

I have some lovely momentos of time spent with my uncle, and this weird one.

Uncle Andy gave me this little bar of silver when I was a teenager. I don't fully remember the context, but I think I maybe had just done his dishes for him (if you had been to his house on Stanfield during his bachelor years, you know what a chore this was). Perhaps we were just hanging out after one of our road trips to North Carolina. At the time, it seemed weird to me that he had a bar of silver. As a watchmaker and fixer of jewelry, though, it makes sense to me, now.

I thought it was really special; he assured me it wasn't valuable.*

Apparently silver is created during a supernova - when stars explode at the end of their lives. We still are feeling the effects of Uncle Andy's own little supernova, although I'm not yet sure what that created.

I think this is really special; in my mind it is really valuable.

* My online searching this morning suggests that it was probably worth about $8 when he gave it to me, and it is worth anywhere between $17 (going rate for a troy ounce) and $40 (collectors like the history of the Bache bars of silver).