Both of my parents come from big families. My dad had seven brothers and sisters, and my mom’s family was twice as big.

As my parents have gotten older, I have found that I have fewer aunts and uncles left.

This week we got the news that my mom’s youngest brother had passed away at 58 years old. He lived a hard life when he was younger and worked in a coal mine all his adult life. His passing has hit my mom and grandmother rather hard.

My grandmother is 93 and comes from a different time and place. She got married very young and gave birth to 15 children, 10 of whom who live into adulthood.

Now that’s a lot of aunts and uncles to have growing up. Naturally, there was also a lot of cousins.

My dad was born and raised in Southern California and my mom was born and raised in southwest Virginia, so my mom’s family is a bunch of hillbillies.

I have an aunt Sue and one named Goose. I also had uncles named, Rod, Neil, Batman and one still around named Tubby. Of course those aren’t their real names. Some are CB handles and others are … well, who knows where those names came from.

I have cousins with strange names too, although I’ve recently been discovering what their real names are via Facebook.

I also have one of those nicknames, but I’ve sworn my wife and son to secrecy. No grown man should be called that.

My brothers and I were always closer to my mom’s side of the family even though 3,000 miles separated us. When I graduated from high school and joined the Army, my parents moved back to where my mom could be close to her family. That was 22 years ago.

I would see my aunts and uncles when I would visit my parents, but always for a brief few days.

My family and I will be piling into the car and heading east. We’re going to Uncle Ronnie’s funeral. I suspect most of the family will call him Neil

The silver lining is the fact that we’ll spend a few brief days visiting with Junior, Petey, Blacksnake and the rest of my cousins. I may even ask my last remaining uncle what is his real name. For the life of me I can’t remember, but I’ve called him Tubby all my life.