Uncle Bill Installment #16
I don’t know what my uncle’s relationship was with black coral – or if he even had one. I don’t know much about my uncle’s relationships with other-than-sea-creatures either. I can only speculate. Corals are composed of polyps, each having a ring of tractable tentacles surrounding a mouth. Similar to trees, coral form growth […]
Uncle Bill Installment #14
So, Mr. X called me. I hate calling him “Mr. X”. It sounds X Files or worse, porno. At 88 years old he sounds very sharp and robust. He didn’t know Uncle Bill well at all. He was Uncle Bill’s roommate at the time of his disappearance. He was on San Salvador Island for a […]
Uncle Bill Installment #13
A small thing happened while I was on San Salvador Island [it was a big thing]. “Marie” posted a comment to one of my blog installments. “My mother talks about this incident at the base. She was a young girl and worked in the mess hall, she remembers Bill very well, she can tell you […]
Uncle Bill Installment #12
From Nassau, I phoned Bob and we exchanged our usual topics of conversation … the daily junk that old married folk talk about when they’re apart: His golf score. The latest neighborhood news. The size, color, regularity and consistency of our dog’s poop. The mail – there’s a small package from my cousin, Kate. Years […]
Uncle Bill Installment #11
Our final evening on Sal Salvador island arrived. We were to meet Juanita Vernecia at the tip of the island. Juanita’s son owns Dis Da One, a grocery store in North Victoria Hill. When we arrived, we were met with a friendly “Hello!” Garnell (Juanita’s daughter) is a lovely wisp of a thing. Dressed […]
Uncle Bill Installment #7
Taking Uncle Bill’s cameras to the place he was last known to have been (San Salvador Island in the Bahamas) was, at first, just a little spark of an idea. Learning more about my Uncle Bill over the past few months brought a significant shift in my thoughts, moving this photo project from the recesses […]
Uncle Bill Installment #5
Coming out of the Covid time, I began to delve deeper into the contents of the Ancestry folder that cousin Kate had sent: Most items were dated June, 30 1958 and on into July and August of the same year. Between the time of the investigation and the presenting of the actual investigator’s […]
Uncle Bill: Installment #4
November, 2019. Southeast Michigan. With leftover crusty snow on the ground, some sun and outside temperatures in the 20’s – 30’s, the scene inside the house appeared more like a natural disaster than a home for sale. There had been a bungled estate sale and, in the intervening months, the home my parents’ raised us […]