Saturday, February 1, 2020
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(A Tribute from Al Ramey - contributed via email . )
"We miss you Bubber Joe. Bubber Joe? . When Joe’s half brother Verny was only about three and a half years old my wife Ruth and I went over to my aunt Edna’s to see if Joe was home. Little Verny came out to the car, wide eyed and typically excited to see us. I asked him if Joe was home and he exclaimed, “Bubber Joe’s out riding his cycle motor” and in our minds he has been Bubber Joe ever since.
Joe’s father Ernest and my mother Florence were brother and sister. We were first cousins and until aunt Edna and my uncle Ernest divorced and she moved Joe, his sister Charlotte and his younger brother Kenneth away from our neighborhood we were more like brothers. Joe was one year and eleven months younger than I. I was raised right from birth by my maternal grandmother Eva Ramey (Nana), In our formative years we did a great deal together. All our lives we have remained family. Aunt Edna remarried and from that marriage Robin (Sissy), Vernon (Verny) and Larry were born. Sadly both Robin and Vernon have passed away far too soon.
About 2008 Joe moved onto our property and lived in a small motor home right up until his stroke in 2011.As his dementia progressed he could get pretty grumpy but he never did that with me, my wife Ruth or our companion Linda. The stroke caused Aphasia and he could not carry on a conversation. Just before he passed he said to me quite clearly, “I’ve had enough”. Shortly after that he quit eating and drinking anything. The day before he passed he held Ruth’s hand and then Linda’s as they told him that we love him and then I was last. I held his hand and also told him that we love him but although we love him very much, that if he had truly had enough and wanted to leave us, then that is what we want also. I started to let go of his hand and he somehow raised slightly and brought the other hand up and grabbed my other hand and held on tightly for just a few seconds and let go and laid back down. The next day he passed away.
We sure miss you Bubber Joe.
Al Ramey "