I remember Thanksgiving as a little girl at Gram's. Uncle Steve was there with everyone else in Gram's living room with a table almost not big enough for all of us, and almost too big for the room itself. After gorging on many courses Uncle Steve, Dad, me, Allie, and I don't remember who else went for a walk down at Cove. We brought peanuts to feed the squirrels. I remember him in his navy peacoat showing me that if I held the peanut really still, the squirrels would come right up to us and take the nuts. Then he took a peanut and held it up far enough so the squirrel had to climb on to his knee to get it. To a little girl, a squirrel on the knee was a big deal.

I also remember the drive down to visit in Florida... We got there in the middle of the afternoon and all had to go to the bathroom after a long drive in a little car. The toilet paper was running out in the bathroom and someone mentioned it to Uncle Steve. His response? Everyone gets to use 3 squares; if you need more too bad. We don't have any! which was followed up by a chuckle and a run to the grocery store.

He always tried to make the best of a rotten situation with his quirky sense of humor. He always made everyone laugh: at him, at ourselves, it didn't matter. He was good at changing the subject to distract people from "yelling" at him... and good at stirring up a good bit of trouble. He gave the best hugs, and cracked himself up telling stories about dive buddies or fellow pilots.

I'm gonna miss being able to make more little memories with him, almost as much as I'm gonna miss him.