One Funeral Away From Being The Oldest Male Alive

Honors I Don't Want Or Ask For...


It saddens me to report that my Branch of the Rogers Family lost another Son to eternity this evening.

This time it was my Father's Brother--my Uncle Thomas.

I got the call from my Cousin Tom II a little after nine PM and made the associated follow up calls spreading the word and spent a few moments making mental preparations in anticipation of a trip back to southern Ohio to the family cemetery.

In the middle of that process was when I realized something that stopped me cold in my tracks.

Can't be true...but it is...

The only thing between me and the position of being the oldest man in my entire sub-branch of the Rogers family tree is the continued fair health of my good old Uncle Darrell who can be found enjoying life in retirement in Northeast Florida at this moment.

Other than that...it's just ME--Virgil Raymond Rogers, III--oldest grandson vintage 1959.

Pawpaw's gone--a 1918 model who survived until 1979 (Grandma went to be with him a couple years ago after surviving since 1919.)

My own father passed on May 5th, 1996, and now with Uncle Tom's demise there's just Darrell and Tom II and yours truly left over (Darrell, like me is childless.)

This getting old stuff generally sucks, although it is said to be a right smart better than the alternative. I guess that's so..but still...

I'll just have to take their word on that, but any way my family specifically and America in general lost another great man this evening who had spent the past few years suffering from the effects of cancer and the treatments imposed upon him in the process.

Uncle Tom (the middle brother of the three) received a full scholarship and graduated from the General Motors Institute in the mid 1950's, did a short stint in the US Army, and spent much of his lifetime as a GM manager in the Detroit area.

He served in a purchasing capacity with the development of the GM motor home which was doomed by the oil embargo's and fuel shortages of the Nixon/Carter era of American diplomacy.

By the time Volkswagen had shelved the old Beetle and started building new cars in the US, General Motors was doing a round of "down sizing" and Tom opted to do the unthinkable and leave his beloved company to work for the competition.

More recently he spent his golden years running a surplus equipment business and working in his capacity as a lay leader in the Detroit area Mormon Church.

I had hoped to see him again but things just progressed down hill quickly in the past week and it was not to be. I last saw him at his own mother's funeral and had only spoken on the telephone a few times since, although he did keep up with my ramblings and ravings by reading this blog on occasion.

When things like this occur I guess one should pause to consider one's life's priorities and daily realities, and I certainly am willing to redirect my excess energies and efforts toward the nooks and crannies of my existence when the opportunity arises.

Heck, given a few tanks of gas and a couple of weeks off, there's no telling who I could bother and what welcomes I could wear out except the truth be told I'll probably just sit here and work and worry and lament the passing of the next member of what we call "The Greatest Generation."

RIP Uncle Tom...