Wednesday, September 24, 2008

emotional paper second draft

It was a sunny afternoon, not a cloud in the sky. My great uncle, Bob Winecoff, was driving back to his lake side house near Charlotte, North Carolina, when he dozed off for about three seconds. Even though this may not seem like a very long time, you travel roughly the length of a football field going the speed he was. Being relatively unconscious during this time period, his car swerved off the road and hit a tree; Bob Winecoff died on impact. It was a sad day for me when I found out about his death. There would be no more fun days with uncle Bob down at the lake house, no more happy memories to come from there.

My great uncle Bob was a remarkable man. He lived his whole life in North Carolina and all he ever did was give back to his home state. From an early age, Bob was quite religious. He went to church every Sunday and prayed every night before going to sleep. He was so into religion that, even at a very young age, he did not participate in Sunday school, but demanded to stay with his parents for the regular service.

By the time uncle Bob was fourteen years old, he was fully initiated in the church and spoke at almost every sermon. At the age of twenty-three he became a preacher and continued that part-time job until he died. His other job was working for the navy. Bob joined the navy when he was twenty five and served for ten years. Luckily, during his service, he did not even one time have to do any actual fighting, although he was always trained and ready. After his time with the navy was up, he worked at a local library as a bookkeeper; quite a parallel to his former profession as part of the navy.

When he retired at sixty years of age, Bob was not yet done giving back to his state. You could always find Bob helping with charity organizations, while still keeping up his preaching. That’s what Bob did until the fatal day, when he died at the age of seventy six. No longer would North Carolina have one of its most valued citizens.

So, my question is: Why must such a bad and unfortunate thing happen to such a good person? When all my great uncle Bob did was give back to his community, he ended up dying much earlier than he should have, and by an incredibly unfortunate and unforeseeable accident. He really didn’t deserve it, and it changed my life forever, knowing I would never again get to see my beloved great uncle Bob. No longer would me and my cousins make the drive to his wonderful lake house in North Carolina and jump off the deck. No longer would there be those good old cook outs with the whole family around talking and conversing. Gone… gone forever and missed by every single person that knew him.

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