My Great Uncle Lennie – 9/2011

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”

Sir James Barrie

There are special people who grace our lives and enrich us.
They make the world a better place.
They have huge, unconditionally loving hearts.
You just feel better when they are around.

This describes my Uncle Lennie.
I was blessed to have him in my life for 54 years.
He passed away on Saturday, February 11th at 94 years old.

Over all the years, Uncle Lennie would talk about his brother, Albert who died very young.
Uncle Lennie consistently acknowledged Albert and included him in his entire life.
He would share how much he loved and missed him.  It is remarkable that Albert passed away on February 11th well over seventy years ago and this is the very day that Uncle Lennie went too.  God is always in charge.

Going back to my earliest memories, I can see Uncle Lennie with a smile on his face.
He loved to be with his family and he loved people.
He was just a good soul and practiced The Golden Rule like his older sister, my Grandma Yvette – they were cut from the same cloth.

Uncle Lennie always loved being with our family.
He sincerely loved spending time with my older brother, Neil and I.
He would take us places and do things for us and make sure that we had a great time.
Most importantly, Uncle Lennie always took the time to make sure that we knew how much he loved us.  He wanted to be with us, it brought him such joy that it was contagious.

It was the little things, the simple things that showed how wonderful a person Uncle Lennie was.
He did whatever he could do to share a smile, a joke, make you laugh and make you feel good.
He said nice things to people because he wanted to.  He helped people.
When Uncle Lennie spoke about other people, even relatives that were having a tough time, he did it with love and respect.  Technically, Uncle Lennie was my Great Uncle, but in reality Uncle Lennie was a Great Uncle because he was a great person.

As we grew older, Uncle Lennie would talk to us about life, offer his support and advice and share his experience.  Yet, he never did it in a way that made you feel less than or spoken down to.  I always felt nurtured.  We would talk about life and business in the later years and he always focused about what was most important – family and following proper principles.  Being a good person, helping others, honesty, integrity, making your family proud and quality service.  These were subjects we talked about often.  Even when we talked about business and making money he always reminded me about doing it the right way. 

In the Jewish culture there is an expression that best describes Uncle Lennie – he was a mensch!
He was a sincere, caring and responsible person.
I am a better person because of him and proud of the man that he became.
We all could use an Uncle Lennie in our lives.
Our world is a better place because of him.

God bless Uncle Lennie.
May every family have one!

hugs,
🙂 Lee
The Mega Coach

“Was he a short man Megee?, not at’all, not at’all!”

(One of Uncle Lennie’s favorite puns)