Dear Uncle Scott,
By: Julianne Ho
Tags: Growing Up, Short, Reminiscence, Memories, Deceased

Hey, it’s Julianne. Grace and Fred Ho’s daughter? I mostly go by J now, though.

When I was little, I was part of a play group. The play group was an excuse for our parents to hang out, really; they’d have house parties, there’d be food, there were other kids, and the parents would play games and laugh and laugh and laugh. As I got older, I stopped going. But from when I was young, too young to actually remember how old I was, I remember my Uncle Scott.

Uncle Scott was, frankly, an amazing guy. He didn’t have kids, but if we got restless, he would be the one to wrestle with all seven or eight of us. He’d listen to our plans to storm the upstairs bedroom and take it from the younger kids, and cross his heart that he wouldn’t tell them about our Nerf guns. He was a great friend to our parents, but we just knew he was a great friend to us, and I loved him like family.

Uncle Scott had brain cancer. Honestly, that might not have been it; we were too young to be told, really, what was going on. I don’t remember when he left, either. For some reason, I thought he’d moved to Florida. No idea who told me that. As a little kid does, I assumed he was coming back, and then after a while I stopped remembering to ask about him. It was only in the last few years that it occurred to me that he must’ve died.

A year after a very different death, many years after I saw you last, I asked my mom about you. She told me that you moved to Michigan to be closer to your parents. I guess your father died while you were there, and pretty soon you were in hospice and you went too. I don’t know when, but I guess really soon after you left. Wish I could remember when that was.

She was really surprised, you know. I guess Justin doesn’t remember you, but I think that he must. Maybe not your name, but I don’t think he could forget your presence. I’ll be real though, even though I think I can recall your face, I’m never really sure if it’s quite right.

A lot has changed, but why wouldn’t it? Auntie Teresa and Uncle Sanford got a divorce, that family with tons of kids is expecting their tenth (but I guess they wouldn’t have been that huge when you knew them). We still went to the Pongs’ for a few years after you, but I stopped going as I got older and busier. Kinda regret that now.

Justin, Nathan, and I went to college this year! I haven’t talked to them in a while, but Justin is going to Northeastern and Nathan is going to UC Santa Barbara in the fall. There’s this thing called COVID-19 that’s keeping everyone home, so I’m not sure if they actually went or not.

A long time after I lost touch with them, I threw myself into a sport, of all things. I’m playing Division 2 basketball now, and I’m proud to say that I love it just as much now as I did when I could barely run a lap, maybe even more so. If we weren’t chin-deep in a world-wide pandemic, I would’ve wanted you at some of my games.

All in all, I’m not sure why I wrote this. There’s no way that I can catch you up on years and years of major life events that you’ve had to miss. I guess this is my way of saying goodbye, now that I know that I should’ve all that time ago (but how would I have known? I was 6). I hope, that despite everything, you left happy. I hope you left knowing that you were loved, and that you are remembered. I hope that you still laugh as much as you used to. Goodbye Uncle Scott, I’ll see you again sometime.