There are too many memories to write them all down. I will never forget when we woke up on Christmas morning and heard a "mentally disabled" person outside talking, and only to walk outside to see you in a santa hat and aprin that looked like Santa's coat, it was you out there talking..I'm not sure if you were talking back to the guy in the backyard behind us swinging or not...There were so many camping trips to the lake that I went with you and your family, when we went to the point, Chad and I were trying to find ways to go down the stairs, we tried pillow cases, the ironing board, pizza boxes..but nothing was working. It was your brillian idea to use the roll-away bed mattress to put on the stairs and go down on it. It was a blast, so funny when you almost went through the window at the bottom..

There are just too many memories Uncle Rick... I miss you and those days! 

So many moment you were there in my life, The good the bad and everything in between. I remeber one night I was having a really bad dream and I was screaming, You came in and woke me up. You stayed with me for a while untill I was calmed down and was able to go back to sleep. I miss those moments when you could comfort me. 

I was watching old home videos and I got up and walked into the next room for a moment.  While I was in the other room I heard his laugh and it stopped me in my tracks.  I had forgotten how much I missed it.  He wasn't even in the video, he stood just off camera but I rewound it just so I could hear it again.  He had this wonderful, loud laugh that filled the whole room.  It wasn't just a sound he made, it was like he laughed with his soul.  I miss hearing that laugh out loud but I can still hear it in my head as plain as day.  I am thankful for that.

When my husband and I first decided to move up to Prescott Valley the first people I called were my aunt and uncle.  I went up there for the day to look at rental houses and my uncle came with me.  That was probably the first time in my life me and him just hung out alone together.  We had a really nice time and he showed me around town telling me what areas were good and which ones I should probably avoid.  When I found a house to rent in my price range and everything he came with me to help me negotiate and fill out lease papers.  it was the first house my little family had ever rented and my husband couldn't be there at the time so it was really comforting to have him there to help out.  Nothing particularly exciting or funny happened on that trip.  It was just really nice to hang out with him like that.  I really appreciated him taking the time out to help me out.  I don't remember if I ever told him thanks for that or not.   

I remember one year not that terribly long ago when we went up on Mingus mountain to play in the snow.  We were driving up a particularly windy and, in my opinion, terrifying road, and I was hanging on for dear life.  He noticed how scared I was and told me not to worry about it.  He said that if we went off the edge we wouldn't fall very far because the pine trees would probably pin us.  I remember that all the other people in the car didn't think that sounded very comforting but it honestly helped me.  I never thought about that before for some reason and it sounded reasonable enough to me.  My family went there ourselves the next year and I wasn't even afraid to drive up that road.  As small of a thing as that may seem to some, getting past a fear that had kept me from driving up there myself for so many years was a big deal to me.  He probably wouldn't even remember it but it just goes to show how the smallest act of kindness, in comforting words, can stick with another person for the rest of their lives.