39 Comments
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Kellie's avatar

Excellent read! Uncle Marty’s funeral could have been my family!

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Germaine Lambergs's avatar

I lived in Boston for many years and found this brought back many good and not so good memories. Thank you

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Karen's avatar

Great writing Peter. Would love to read more of your stories!

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Peter Scobas's avatar

thank you so much! you can read more here if you're interested! https://psychologyonions.substack.com/

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DCJohnson's avatar

Wow...

That was impressive

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Paul Scott Duesterdick's avatar

I didn’t know my uncle’s name was Marty!

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Mary's avatar

Thank you for sharing this from Peter! It brought tears of sorrow and joy simultaneously. May we all have the day we deserve!

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Cindy Novak's avatar

Loved the Uncle Marty read!!! I think we can all relate to all or part of it! Thanks Bill!

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Merlyn Friesen's avatar

I’ve said before, you never know what to expect when you open Understandably. What a fun read today from Peter. Thanks Bill. PS - Don’t move to 11am - I would miss starting my day with your posts.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

🙌💯❤️

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Steve's avatar

I sit here thinking about the upcoming funeral of a friend and what his death means to me and others. It will be a celebration of a life well lived with and appropriate last chapter (Paul was 96 and laid his wife to rest a few months ago). It will also be an opportunity for each attending to look at his or her own life, and perhaps covenant to 'fight the good fight of faith, to finish the course' and to look forward to eternity. How terribly sad that "uncle Marty's" funeral ended not in something good, but in a debachery. I don't find that amusing in the least.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

❤️❤️❤️

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Walter Kresge's avatar

Today’s column would have been much better without Uncle Marty’s funeral.

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Denise's avatar

Oh brother :(

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William Carl Thomas's avatar

A New Jersey woman bought a rustic private island in Maine not fit for 'man or beast' in winter. Steven King found out. His response (which might give the woman pause?): "There's a novel here, just waiting to be written."

https://www.zendesk.com/service/messaging/chatbot/

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Michael Mohr's avatar

💯🙏❤️🫰

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Cathy Pyrek's avatar

After the poignancy of Uncle Marty's funeral, 7 other things were especially rich today.

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Kate's avatar

Perfect. We can all relate, though in my case, brother or father Marty.

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Matt Lynch's avatar

Everyone should have an uncle Marty - I did. I am sure he liked your pants.

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Ninah's avatar

Funerals are “crazy time”. That’s when you see what’s actually been going on in the family.

The writer who moved to Mexico....brilliant!

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Michael Mohr's avatar

🙏

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David Feiser's avatar

My first thought was, this is really weird. It turns out this was a good read. As you noted, Bill, the lack of identifying details actually works to bring the reader into the story.

On a different note, the Seven Other Things are always interesting. In this case, however, the story of the former slave taking out an ad in hopes of finding his long lost mother is just heartbreaking.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

❤️❤️

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