No ordinary guy!

When you decide that you have found THE ONE, and you both agree to make it official, you have to accept their family dynamics into your life ... NOT that I am complaining. Actually, if I'm honest, far from it, but we all have our curiosities, stories, and skeletons, so when you get the opportunity to learn a wee bit more about that "adopted" group, it's usually an eyebrow raising affair.

My bestie has an Uncle Dick ... or I guess it's appropriate to say she had, since he passed recently ... the older brother of my MIL Pearl. Although I was able to spend some quality hours with Uncle Dick over the past few years, I didn't really know his story very well. I learned a lot of new information when we gathered at his home following a beautifully loving farewell service.

His birth names were James Samuel. At that gathering following his service his curious nickname was discussed at length and was punctuated by a lot of head scratching and shoulder shrugging since no one could offer information about where the moniker came from, other than the fact that he had been addressed that way for decades. Joyce has always known her uncle as Dick, but the gathering of life-long friends at his service would reveal that he was known as Jim or Jimmy as well.

How confusing is that?

Now Dick is a name that you don't hear much anymore, aside from the obvious snickers it generates from today's young'uns, and it seems to have fallen out of favour. I've know a few Dicks over my years (the NAME not the quality), but all of them were originally labelled Richard, and for a variety of reasons, were "shortened" to Dick. If you wish a more all-encompassing explanation, CLICK HERE, but suffice it to say that once the 1970's hit, and with it an expanded sexual liberty, the oft used nickname for the male appendage became wide spread, prompting the name to fall out of the top 1000 baby names quickly. 

Getting back to Joyce's uncle.

Almost as a polar opposite of the insinuated meaning for male parts, Uncle Dick was a genuinely astonishing human being who was quick with a smile, full of one liners, generous to a fault, and definitely "old school" ... but he was born in 1925 so no one could blame him! One of the polarizing personalities throughout his years in his adopted home town of Georgetown, Dick was an iconic symbol of what it was to be a good person, establishing life long friendships in his neighbourhood, on the golf course, and at the coffee shops in town. Above all else, Dick was the consummate family man, insisting that all family gatherings take place in his home, spreading his love equally as he revelled in his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Where did this gem of a human learn to be so awesome?

Born in 1925 into the abject poverty of Upper Gagetown in rural New Brunswick, he quickly learned that there was a popular way to live life, and then there was the Painter way ... actually, the Paynter way ... but that's another story for another time. The family suffered the untimely passing of their father in 1933, what history buffs will recognize was during The Great Depression, with Dick a wee lad of 8 years (grade 3) at the time, the family decision was that he would forgo the remainder of his school experience to help the family's need. He found work thanks to his older brother Charlie in a logging camp, chopping wood for the cook to run the stove, true 'blue collar' employment that would be a continuing theme throughout his working life. As it would turn out, trees would become a central component of his earning years, investing 30 years at the paper mill in Georgetown after moving to Ontario with his beloved Ruth.

In a rather cute story, Dick met his soul mate Ruth thanks to his job building roads in rural NB. He was recommended a rooming house run by Ruth's mother, and since her daughter would need a ride back into town every now and again, the rather smitten Dick was more than happy to oblige her needs. After a few shared journeys, the rest is history, as the saying goes.

Shouldering more than their fair share of hardships, the family would lose 2nd born son John Paynter in WWI, drawing the remaining siblings together with even tighter bonds, John's military pension helped make ends meet during some really tough times. Life in Upper Gagetown during this point in history meant no running water, no indoor plumbing, and even no floors in portions of the home. 

Fast forward a gaggle of years, Dick and his older brother Charlie relocated to Georgetown, and in a stroke of financial genius, purchased a large triple lot in the city's northeast end. They severed the lot into 3, sold the one, the proceeds helping build two identical homes side by each in 1955. Living beside your brother means that your two families become intertwined, the kids viewing their cousins more like siblings. Add to this that my in-laws, Pearl and Jim, lived in the same city not far away, and the recipe for a tight family becoming even tighter was a certainty. Unfortunately, Charlie and his wife Helen would predecease Dick, as would his beloved Ruth, but everyone's favourite uncle would remain a stalwart force in the neighbourhood for 49 years until being 98 years young eventually forced the family hand, his health deterioration causing a fall that forced a hospital stay and Covid infection that proved to be too much for his system to handle.

James Samuel Paynter mercifully passed in his 99th year.

Joyce and I offer our most sincere, heartfelt condolences to Joyce's Mom Pearl for the loss of her bestest buddy Dick, her cousin Kevin and the rest of the Georgetown Paynter clan, and Joyce's many relatives who made the trip from near and far to celebrate a life well lived.

He was CERTAINLY no ordinary guy!