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Okay so WordPress isn’t COMPLETELY recycling old prompts. Technically we were asked back in August about the meaning of our FIRST name. I wrote about it in a very-similarly titled post called “What’s in a Name?“
I’m going to talk about my middle name, but I won’t be disclosing it. I will probably end up going down a different rabbit-hole, talking about my family and family dynamics. You’ve been warned…
I got my middle name from my uncle. That is to say, my middle name was named after him, if that makes sense. Mother and her brother were close growing up, as far as I’ve always heard. Even when they were adults, I saw my cousins on that side of the family fairly often. we didn’t live too far from each other, so we would spend all the major holidays together, Christmas, birthdays, etc.
My grandfather passed away, just before I turned 10. My grandmother, who had her own sheriff health problems before my grandfather’s passing, really seem to shut down after he died. She stopped cooking for herself. She had never learned to drive; or, at least, she never got a drivers license. so often times it fell to my mom, and her older sister, to look after my grandmother.
I remember there was one weekend when my uncle (from whom I got my middle name) and his wife went out of town. My parents had agreed to watch their kids/my cousins. So my youngest cousin spent the week over at my house. When my aunt uncle got back into town. My mom and dad spoke to them about helping out with looking after my grandmother, having her stay over the house for weekends and things like that. my aunt completely flipped her lid. They abruptly picked up my cousin and went home.
It was nearly 20 years before we really spent much time with my aunt, my uncle, and my cousins again. We would receive the occasional Christmas Christmas card, but we never hung out. Never did birthdays together. Never did holidays together anymore.
In fact, it wasn’t until my uncle got sick with respiratory problems, which ultimately killed him, until my aunt and uncle started speaking to us again.
I bring this up not to throw my aunt and uncle under the bus, but to talk about the way that families tend to fall apart, when a patriarch passes. I seen the same thing happened to my own immediate family after the old man died. Not to the same extent as happened with my mom‘s family mind you, but I definitely saw some of the true colors of my mother, my brother, and sister definitely come out.
What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning or significance?
Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:
- Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
- A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
- The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
- Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
- The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie
The article “What’s in a (Middle) Name?” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob
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