Uncle Finn - Legend and Myth Rowed into One

I have struggled with sharing stories from my past. Some memories can be painful. One hates to dredge up the past and then feel overwhelmed by the results. But in an effort to connect with my soft side I forge on...

My mother had three brothers. The family only talks about two of these-- Uncle Robert who died in a training flight off Flordia in the Bermuda triangle and my dear Uncle Minor who lives north of Detroit. The one not mentioned is Uncle Finn. He was older than all the others. I think he was born of my grandmother's wilder years. Finn preferred to live apart from his family, often in the woods. He was an aquatic mountain man type.

We would see Uncle Finn on occasion. He always had a wild beard and loved to sail the high seas of the Great Lakes--Michigan land for you southern readers. He was wild and reckless, barely housebroken. His memory has returned to me because of my son, Andrew Minor, and his lovely wife, Sarah, have given birth to twin boys and reached into our past by naming one of the boys Finn. He is already the wild one with scratches on his face and a great love of water--bath time.

Let's end here for the moment and call it Chapter One of the epic story of Uncle Finn and the High Seas...