My Texas oilman cousin Gene died in an Austin hospice last week and his wife Pat created an online memorial for him on www.MeM.com.
Gene and his younger brother Ronnie were raised by our grandmother and we first met at her house when he was a teenager and I was about eight. He was my first crush. Then we had no contact for decades, until he showed up at my mother's house at Christmas 2000 just to get reacquainted. After that we had marathon phone conversations now and then, and in his unforgettable Texas twang he filled me in on all the family history I'd missed by leaving Texas at 19 and spending the rest of my life in California. He always called me L'il Girl.
He was named Odus for his father, but always went by Gene. He never finished school but he managed to achieve a successful career in the Texas oil industry. He was immensely fond of his two grandsons, and loved to dance. He and Pat had only been married a few years.
He had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, the same as me, and his had advanced to the point that he was on oxygen 24/7, but his spirit and sense of humor were still strong. Then a sudden attack of shingles sent him to the doctor and the cancer was discovered.
I have dozens of emails, mostly junk, that he sent me and I can't bring myself to delete them. At some point last year I became annoyed with his relentless messages railing against Obama and illegal aliens, and for oil exploration. So I stopped replying. But when I went with my sister to see him in October I knew we were saying goodbye though we talked about everything else but that. We didn't agree on a lot of things, but he was still my favorite cousin and I'll always miss him.