Sometime after Dad moved us to Bradleyville, Bill Lawson, Dad's uncle, Grandma Mary's older brother, came to live with us. We had always gone up and taken Uncle Bill to the store or took him groceries, but he was nearly blind and wouldn't move in with anybody no matter how much he was asked.
Well, one night his house caught on fire, and of course, he couldn't see to fight it and he was fortunate to get out of the house before it collapsed in flames upon him.
After that, he lived with Grandma Mary and Brown, his sister and brother, for a while, in Grandma Mary's house. I'm not sure what came first or next, but I think he went to live with Ginger for a while after he lived with Grandma Mary, then when she re-married and moved, he came to live with us.
Uncle Bill was one of the most kindhearted sweet old guys I ever knew. I never knew my Grandpa Sloan really, he lived in Washington State my whole life and I had only seen him a handful of times so Uncle Bill, Grandma Mary's brother, my great uncle, took my grandfather's place in my mind. Of course I had Grandpa Toad, he was my grandpa, he was fun, I loved him a ton, but I also loved Uncle Bill.
We used to go up Caney to his house to take Uncle Bill somewhere or take him groceries, and it was always a fun time to me. I was under 10 years old so I didn't react quite the way my mom did to his house and the way he lived.
I just remember going there a few times, one time we went into the house, and there were chickens on the couch and walking around. We had to brush off a place to sit on the couch. I guess it was easier to find the eggs for a partially blind man if they laid them already in the house....hahaha.
Another time when we went up there, there were cats in the house, lots of cats, and Uncle Bill had left the refrigerator door open (by accident, I'm sure!) and there were cats getting in the fridge, helping themselves to leftovers or whatever was in there.
I always wondered if Uncle Bill was so blind he couldn't see the cats scurrying around, and the chickens? I know he wasn't quite that blind yet, I think he just didn't care about it.
When Uncle Bill was a younger man, he traveled out west and did a little panning for gold. I still have a big gold nugget he gave to my mom, then later she gave to me. She carried it around in her purse all the time, and I did for a while, but I finally put it in a safer place, because I lost it a couple of times and decided I would lose it for good if I kept on like that.
Uncle Bill said he met Buffalo Bill at one of his shows one time while he was out west.
Uncle Bill never married, or so he said. We always kinda wondered if he was telling the truth about it, he had a picture of him and a lady sitting together just like the pictures of back in the day when married couples sat together for a picture.
When Uncle Bill lived up Caney, when he first came back from out west, he lived where the house burned. Across Caney Creek in a cabin lived a man and his two young sons. The boy's names were Alvin and Ivan Adams. They visited Uncle Bill a lot, and thought of Uncle Bill as an uncle, or dad figure, although they weren't related. The way it was told to me was, Uncle Bill offered to move into the cabin and let the dad and boys have the better house, so that is what they did and that's where he lived for years until the boys left, and then he moved back into his house. I don't know what became of the dad.
Uncle Bill used to grow a big patch of watermelons, and the local boys, including Alvin and Ivan, would sneak into the patch and steal a watermelon. When Uncle Bill was asked about it, he said that was the reason he planted the watermelons, was so they could steal them and have fun eating them.
When Uncle Bill moved in with us, he stayed in a bedroom right off the kitchen. He stayed in his bedroom almost all the time. I don't really know why he stayed in there all the time, unless it was because his eyesight just got worse and worse and he was afraid of falling or something.
I used to like to go in his room and visit with him and listen to his stories. One time, he dug in his pocket and pulled out a dollar bill and gave to me and told me to buy something I wanted with it. At the time, in school, the teacher (Daisy Manes) made us say Bible verses every Wednesday morning. I had a small New Testament the Gideons had handed out at school, but I thought a whole Bible would be even better so I used that dollar to buy a white Bible at the dime store in Forsyth. It cost one dollar.
After I got home, Mom told me to go in and show Uncle Bill what I bought with my dollar, so I took it in and showed it to him. He couldn't see it but he held it and I told him what it was. He told me I couldn't have bought anything better for my dollar than that. It made me feel so good.
As the years went by, Uncle Bill developed Cerebral Arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries in his brain, is the way the doctor described it. He started having times where he didn't know where he was, and thought he was out west panning for gold again. Sometimes he would take his cane and beat the floor with it and holler at an imaginary dog he thought was trying to steal his food.
Finally it got so that he was having those episodes more and more. Mom was afraid he would get up and roam around at night and fall down our basement stairs which were really close to his bedroom, or he might think one of us kids was the dog he was always trying to beat and scare away. She was afraid he might really hurt one of us, thinking we were that dog.
So the hard decision was made to put him in the nursing home in Forsyth, the old one down by the lake. It was a nice surprise that one of the nurse's aides that worked there was a girl that lived up Caney close to where Uncle Bill used to live. She knew him and always made sure he got enough to eat and kept an eye out for him.
Dad got a call on September 20, 1970 that Uncle Bill had passed away. It was the first close family member that I knew that had passed away, and I took it pretty hard.
I remember the funeral.It was held at Bradleyville General Baptist Church. The casket was a light blue flocked, kind of like felt or something. Probably the cheapest they had, but I thought it was pretty. Glesco Roberts was the preacher. Burl and Helen Maggard and (I think ) Fern Hodges and Bobby Combs sang. I just remember one song they sang was "Farther Along". It has been one of my favorite songs ever since.
Uncle Bill was laid to rest in the Bradleyville Cemetery, close to his mother, Barbara Lawson and 3 of his sisters that died when they were young.
Alvin and Ivan Adams contacted Dad and insisted on buying Uncle Bill's headstone. They put flowers on his grave every Memorial Day until they passed away.
RIP Uncle Bill
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