My uncle, Tom McGowen Sr., died Monday. His funeral was Christmas Eve.
Uncle Tom was 94 and his health hadn’t been good for the past few years. His time had come.
Uncle Tom was manager of Sears in Burlington for better than 30 years, from the days it was situated on a cramped downtown corner to its move to Holly Hill Mall near the interstate.
I tell people that my uncle managed Sears back when Sears was really something (remember the thrill of getting the Sears Christmas catalog?), before Wal-Mart and other impersonal discounters took over the retail market.
Uncle Tom had only one child, Tom Jr., who is my age. Tom spoke at his father’s funeral, reminding those in attendance that his father would have asked him to keep his remarks brief.
It was, after all, Christmas Eve morning.
“Dad would have wanted me to point out that the store shelves remain full,” Tom said, “that there are still six hours of shopping time available.”
And then everyone in the sanctuary laughed. Which is a good thing to do, I think, especially at a funeral.
Uncle Tom was an Army captain during the Second World War, involved in the invasion of Normandy as well as the Battle of the Bulge.
My mother referred to him as “regimented,” which was probably an apt description. Uncle Tom was a stickler for order.
I never heard Uncle Tom speak about his years in the Army, but my father told me that Tom used to talk about the buildup of Allied troops and military equipment in England in the months prior to the invasion of Europe.
Tom, my father said, said there were so many tanks and whatnot unloaded there in England that he sometimes wondered what kept the island from sinking.
Uncle Tom was a native of Alabama and came to Burlington after the war via a Sears transfer. He married my mother’s sister ó Virginia (who came to be known by everyone in the family as “Aunt Ginny”).
By 1950s standards, they were ancient by the time of their first marriages. Tom was 41 and Virginia was 35.
Aunt Ginny died in 1987. She was 66, but could easily have passed for 10 years younger. She was a lovely woman.
Everyone in the family wondered how long Tom would survive without his beloved wife. He came within a month of making it 22 years, which surprised us all.
When he spoke at his father’s funeral, Tom Jr. said his dad had two lifelong loves ó Alabama and “his dear Virginia.”
I can’t say for sure ó I was too choked up to look around ó but it struck me as the kind of comment that likely prompted a tear from everyone within earshot.
Tom’s comments out of the way, we didn’t dally long at the funeral. It was Christmas Eve and there was shopping to be done.
Uncle Tom would have wanted it that way.
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Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman @salisburypost.com.