Great-Uncle Glade

Uncle Glade surveys his garden, June 2004

Last week, my great-uncle Glade passed away. You may remember him from such adventures as the time he woke up at 4am thinking there might be an intruder outside the home so he armed himself with a baseball bat while he went to check it out. At the time (2004), he was 88 years old.

I realize that many of you may not know your great-uncles very well. I don't know very many of mine well, either, but Jeremy and I lived with Glade (and his wife Alice, my great-aunt, my grandma's sister) for a year and a half after we moved back to the US from Russia. Of course I knew that he wasn't getting any younger, but I was still sad on Friday afternoon when I heard the news of his passing. He stayed active and did so much for so long that sometimes you could forget how old he actually was. By "staying active" and "doing so much," I mean that he continued to garden and mow the lawn and keep up the house and hand-make gorgeous musical instruments until very recently.

Not only did I spend a year and a half in his house, I even read Glade's life story. He put it all together (on a typewriter, if I recall correctly) and had it professionally bound, complete with old pictures and scans of memorabilia. I read Hugh Nibley's biography (A Consecrated Life) around the same time period and I have to admit that my own great-uncle Glade's life story was just as impressive.

May God rest your soul, Uncle Glade. Many people's lives are better because of you.