"Are you ready?"

On Thursday, March 31st, Casey passed away.

My grandmother was an angel.  Truly.  She was only able to give birth to one child, my dad.  A few years later my grandfather passed away.  My grandmother, a single woman in the 1950s, somehow was able to adopt two more children.  When she remarried, she and my grandpa began to foster special needs children, the children no one else wanted.  Angel.

My grandma and grandpa with two of their foster children, Robert (standing) and Casey (wheel chair).  She eventually adopted both of these children.  Though technically Casey is my uncle, he's always simply been Casey.

 Me and Casey in 1984.  In his prime, he was fast.  He would give any eight-month old crawler a run for his money.  He only had full use of one arm and boy did he use it to get himself around.

 In the mid-nineties, my grandmother and Casey moved to Houston.  

My grandma was told when she took Casey that he would be lucky to last a year.  Then twelve years.  He made it to 43.

  Though his vocabulary was extremely limited, he knew what was going on around him and he would let you know what he wanted.  He loved to eat and he loved to play and he loved to laugh.  Once, a member of the family (not me) hadn't positioned Casey properly in his chair and the whole thing tipped backwards and he landed on his head.  This family member was horrified and rushed over to see if he was ok.  Casey's face was turning red because he was laughing so hard.  He thought it was hilarious.

One of my most favorite Casey memories is from Thanksgiving 2007.  I had invited a friend from grad school to spend the holiday with us.  She got in the spirit of things when we had our traditional poetry hour.  She choose The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes.  She was standing up, really getting into the reading.  

RC: ...Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there...

Casey: Me

We laughed for a solid ten minutes, but none laughed more heartily than Casey.

To the most cheerful person I have ever known, "goo' luck"!