Uncle Vincent
Page 4
home he'd heat good china plates, the set his parents got as a wedding gift, directly on the electric burners of the obsolete stove to achieve the desired effect. More than one of them blew up from the intense heat. It drove Chris and Mom nuts. He continued using the good China even after Mom went out of her way to buy a set of cheap set of dishes for him from a Syracuse China Outlet store. He defended his behavior by saying that he didn't want to wreck the new dishes.
Vincent was very generous. He knew about all of the good restaurants wherever he stayed. He frequently paid for dinners and was a great tipper when we dined out. When we bought our house he helped us furnish it by letting us take some of the old furniture and household stuff from around the Bainbridge home that he didn't use anymore. The gesture saved us a lot of money.
Uncle Vincent was a safe and meticulous driver. He taught Chris and her sister how to drive early. He didn't care about licenses or permits and gradually moved them from dirt roads to highways as their proficiencies improved. He had standard speeches about not tailgating, following the speed limit, avoid any potential hazards, using turn signals and being a defensive driver he would give while riding with his kids. He'd also reciprocate and ask passengers to be backseat drivers.
I had lots of on-going debates with the guy that we will now never resolve. I had an article on my desk to send to him stating that it's ok to have a resume that was more than one page. He started that topic when I asked him for Chris' hand in marriage, her father(Armand) died just before I met her. It was the perfect opportunity for him to hold my attention for as long as he wanted. Chris' sister Mary was leaping in the room window behind him to see what was taking so long. We were all planning on going out for a few drinks at a nearby bar and the proposal conversation was not supposed to take more than a few minutes.
Vince never got a chance to test me on his theory that one could not taste the difference between instant and brewed coffee. He threatened to try it on me secretly, “one of these days.”
Another one was about the roto-tiller he gave us. I would start it then release the tiller before the wheels. Vincent quickly pointed out to me the directions said to start the wheels then the tiller. My response to him was it really didn't matter but he did more research and pointed out that the order really did matter otherwise belts and gears would be unnecessarily worn.
After meeting him he used to ask me questions about my work in computers. He was especially curious about the internet. I gave him an old laptop to learn basic PC skills and showed him how to use the internet. He was not the least bit interested in the laptop, he said he was too old to learn how to use that but he contradicted himself by purchasing a Web TV unit and learning how to browse the internet. I found out after he died that he taught many of his neighbors and friends about surfing the internet and using e-mail once he became proficient.
Vince clearly labeled the TV, VCR and Web TV connections every year so when he came back the next Spring and got the services turned back on he could easily set everything back up. It never failed though, every year after returning he would accidentally reverse cables or not label something correctly and need my help to get the sound or picture working correctly on his A/V setup.
Conclusion
I guess all the medical problems he never worried about or downplayed finally caught up to him. Chris and I wondered if he knew this. There were signs but none of us noticed them. The last time we saw him he was behaving strangely. He seemed more emotional than usual, hugging Chris and our daughter Sophie. He went out of his way to shake my hand and pat me on the back just before we left the restaurant we ate at, which he had never done before. Also his best friend Howie in Bainbridge said that Vince left more thorough directions on how to turn the furnace on and un-winterize the house.
A neighbor offered to bring him to the doctor on Tuesday after he arrived in Florida because he didn't look good. Vince just said he had food poisoning from a taco he ate that was left out overnight in his car on his annual migration trip from his NY to Florida residence.
Yesterday afternoon someone found him on the floor disoriented and called for an ambulance. My wife was called by a friend of his but Vincent asked the person calling us to downplay the whole situation because he didn’t want anyone to needlessly worry.
Everything sounded ok at that point but when Chris called the hospital later in the evening to see how things were going the nurse on duty frankly said that he passed away about an hour and a half ago from heart failure.
Vince was badly dehydrated, had kidney failure, and a cold that developed into pneumonia. The doctors also think he probably had a heart attack since arriving there last week. Those factors combined with his breathing problems compounded the situation. His body could not take any more stress (not enough oxygen to his heart probably) and died.
I will miss the guy despite all of his annoying idiosyncrasies. I'm still having a hard time getting the notion out of my head that he died so quickly and unexpectedly for being such a slow paced single minded person. He never did anything quickly before this. I figured he'd have the grim reaper reluctantly waiting for him to put his socks on and before getting the second one on drive him out of the room in frustration with an endless series of mundane questions/statements about whatever was crossing his mind at that moment.