Saturday, April 9, 2011

Good-Bye, Uncle John!


John Michael Pemberton
April 15, 1950 - April 8, 2011

My mom called last night and told me that my uncle, her oldest brother, passed away last night in Port Huron, Michigan. He is the first of my parents' siblings on either side of my family to pass away. He had been sick for the last 10 years or so. He had diabetes and had been through a kidney transplant a few years ago that didn't work out too well. Since then, he had been on dialysis. For about the last month or so, we all knew he was going to die any time now, so my mom and her siblings in Louisiana took a trip up there to visit him and just returned about two weeks ago. Now they are headed up there again for the funeral.

Of course, leave it to my family to be concerned about where to find Zummo brand sausage on their way to a funeral. I was woken up at 9:30 this morning because they were lost in Baton Rouge and looking for a Wal-Mart. I finally got them to a Wal-Mart, but they didn't have the sausage. They have called just about every grocery store from Baton Rouge to the Mississippi/Alabama border to find this stuff. They keep calling me because none of them have iPhones to look the phone numbers up, and I guess they can't figure out how to do it on the GPS. Apparently, Zummo is a southeast Texas based company, and it's pretty hard to find their product outside southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. My uncle in Michigan loves Zummo brand sausage and wants them to bring some. Lesson learned: Don't forget your Zummo sausage before going east of Lafayette.

I wish I could go to the funeral because I really didn't get to say good-bye while he was still alive. Last time I saw him was in June 2009 when I was in Michigan for my Uncle Dennis' (mom's brother-in-law) funeral. I'm tempted to go b/c it's only a 12 hour drive from North Carolina, but I have a busy week at work next week. I have to finish financial statements before the monthly manager meeting on Friday. It would be nice to work for a company with more than one staff accountant. Sigh. And even though I say it's "only" 12 hours, that is a lot of driving for one person to do in a short time. I would only be able to stay 2 nights. Oh, well.

8 comments:

  1. Just in case anyone is curious, there is a Wal-Mart that sells Zummo sausages in Meridian Mississippi. Except that their not taking I-59. They are taking I-55...argh!!!

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  2. My condolences on the loss of your uncle, Jennifer. I lost my last uncle a year ago January.

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  3. I'm so sorry about your uncle, Jennifer. It's just plain lousy being apart from family at these times, though it sounds as if you're in pretty close touch. Crazy what things matter to us. Hope they found some Zummo.

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  4. I am sorry for the loss of your uncle. I hope they found the Zummo. Sounds like it's worth the effort!

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  5. I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your uncle.

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  6. Jennifer, I'm sorry for your loss. Your family is in my prayers.

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  8. Thanks, everyone! They never did find the Zummo. Apparently, people in Mississippi don't know the difference between sausage and boudin (no offense to any Mississippians).

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