UNCLE PAUL


is the tenth child and sixth living child of my maternal grandparents......when Mother and I moved into the house, Paul was the babyboy, and lived in a knotty pine-walled bedroom off the old kitchen......i always thought of him...more like a cousin because he was only 6 years older than I......Gentle and emotionally sensitive, like his older brothers, Earl and Edward, he liked to make kites and motorized, paper-covered balsa airplanes...which he would spend countless hours assembling....ultimately, to watch them crash into trees and telephone wires.....i remember his falling from a tree in the yard....breaking his arm....i swore that i would not encounter this pain...and have never broken an arm or let....he liked to drink from the outdoor spigots and wore huge turned up cuffs on his jeans........