Last week, I was with my family and relatives surrounding my uncle Dennis as he took his final breathe. Unfortunately, his colon cancer came back with a vengeance this year after fighting it back in peak Covid-19 times, and it was a stage 4 diagnosis with 3 months remaining for his mortality.
During those times, my brother took the helm of representing our family, and he was there transporting him and my uncle’s family during hospital visits. He was the rock that would support my aunt and cousins during all his ordeals. He was the rubber band that would make sure the rest of the family was well informed and did their parts. My brother was a god send, and he did all of this while working on his law school admissions.
Through attempts at re-connections, family reunions, tears and jokes, our family reunited. We had all broke off from each other to different homes, different paths, and different lives. This diagnosis and time period, however, brought all of us back home.
My uncle lived life up until the age of 57. And he was one of three relatives that took care of me when I was a baby with my parents. My family immigrated to the states for a better life through an opportunity given by the U.S. government. It was my mother, her parents, two sisters, and two brothers, one of which was my uncle Dennis. My mother met my father and had me here in America. My earliest memories was my mother and father working hard, while my grandparents, aunts, and uncles took turns taking care of me however they can.
Uncle Dennis specifically would watch Cartoon Network’s Toonami feature with me, showing me Sailor Moon, Rurouni Kenshin, and Dragonball Z. He would let me slap around different video game controllers that weren’t plugged in to be his Player 2 during his gaming sessions. He would enjoy the front yard’s garden while I was crawling. And dinners together with the family was filled with the mundane, and it was peace in my household in my early years.
Later in life, he met his amazing wife and together they raised two awesome kids I’m proud to call my cousins. The house started to feel fuller with more and more kids, as my brothers also came to be, as family members started to join us on this journey of living an American life. While he was one of the first relatives I grew with, as I grew older, our family helped numerous relatives start a new life in America. At one point in my life, I lived in a one-story house with 17 other people, all family and relatives. It was a team effort to navigate America, raising us kids and to be a team through and through.
Uncle Dennis was someone that enjoyed video games, computers, and the internet.
When the PlayStation 1 was at its peak, he saved up to give me, my brother and my cousins access to video games. I remember watching them play games like Dynasty Warriors, Soul Edge, Tekken, etc. He would take us to the video game rental store to burn CDs. He would guide us on buying consoles of our own and how to optimize the experience of video games on a budget.
When the internet was getting more accessible, he and my other uncle paved the way for the family to have more than just the “family PC” and helped me buy my first laptop. He gave me access to the internet at an early age and yeah, it was rough but I was able to socialize, learn, and share. He also helped clear the viruses I would unfortunately gain from my silly attempts at downloading music and games.
When the Nintendo DS came out, he figured out the R4 for all of us kids and taught us the joys of discovering titles, learning how to tinker, and to stay playful as we age.
This is my first family passing where now I’m a grown adult, doing only a sliver of what this man did for all of us. He co-signed the place I would call home with many of my family members. He taught us to stay curious, be playful, work hard and play hard. He gave us the arts when we needed it most. And for that, I am forever grateful to be raised and loved by an uncle that only wanted to share what he knew.
I love you, uncle Dennis. You were the baby amongst the aunts and uncles, but you were living life smiling. May you rest in peace, scratching and hitting big in the heavens.
This is Lina 