I've been pondering the news today that Uncle RJ passed, and as I was checking my e-mail...my dear niece Rhonda actually had already done a post :)
YES...Uncle RJ at 92 was a great man. So great, that tears don't come as heaven will be such a greater place with him there! This was a man so impressive to me as a child, and so impressive to generations to come as I grew older and had children of my own and watched many generations pass through his life...all I could ever do in his honor would be not to cry...but celebrate the amazing life this man lived!
R.J. Lloyd was named that by his parents. Many years ago when joining the service he was asked to give a name to those initials...he said there wasn't any...but the military insisted...so Robert James it was, and he said it on the spot. RJ served during the Normandy tour! (amongst others), but he saw great combat and great loss of life. He had many stories and articles and even a box of photos that I'm sure the likes of Time magazine or Life, or any other publication would have loved to get their hands on...he wouldn't have it. He quietly called it his horror box, he would NEVER show me, and I was VERY close to him for years. I know the box saw the light of day...but ONLY at private Veterans memorials or reunions and I'm not sure even his wife knew everything that was in that box of horror.
My Uncle RJ was FUNNY! He had a sense of humor that would leave you just wishing you lived with him just to have one more day to hear his laugh and his take on life. He was a very reasonable man, an honest man, and a MAN that every woman alive would love to have for their own. He loved his wife Mary with the kind of love that is only heard of in fairy tales. He loved her, respected her, worshiped her, and cared for her in a way no person I know personally has ever experienced :) In the dictionary next to love and romance would be his photo :)
I never knew a bigger man. He was not great in stature, but his persona and his beliefs, and the way he LIVED what he believed made him the tallest and largest man alive :) He was so kind. He loved this nation and LOVED to have served as a soldier and he served when being a soldier was a split second any moment away from life or death. He survived and no one knows how. He wouldn't tell us, but most of his compatriots around him met horrible deaths fighting for our country's freedom! His life after service was a miracle, and he lived each day of his life thereafter in miraculous form.
Karma is a strange thing. I on rare occasion would send a card or letter to him back home. And just last night...I'm not sure if I was thinking of him on my way to sleep or I just dreamed of him...but just this morning...I checked my address book and jotted myself a note to send him a card or a letter and just let him know I was thinking of him. I've been gone from home since 1986. I got the call today while out to lunch that he had passed. He came and said a mental hello to me on his way out, and I'm celebrating his dinner tonight with Jesus :)
Uncle RJ used to sit with me in the yard for hours and we would shell black-eyed peas and ponder the world's problems, and he was always funny and always had good answers. He was kind to my kids, and loved both my husbands through the years with grace and humor. I never knew anyone that didn't hold RJ in high regard, especially his wife Aunt Mary.
Tonight...if you hear a little raucus outside in the skies...it's a PARTY :) Uncle RJ and Aunt Mary have re-united in heaven, and life is good for the both of them. RIP to the best Great Uncle a gal could ever have. Thanks for your service to this nation, and thanks for the memories and the greatest inspiration on many levels he gave me as a young girl that I was able to carry into adulthood even to my current age of 46 ;)
It's a rare person that has so much influence on your life...you need not have seen them in years but yet still carry them with you daily :) I was a lucky person to have known RJ Lloyd, and even luckier to have been related to him :) |
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