The Uncle I Never Had….

A page from a child’s diary…. Isn’t life a mixture of facts and fiction?

I have been invited to read the Quran at my Nano’s house for the comfort of the spirit of an uncle I never had. I never saw him. I never met him.

I am only ten years old, and I feel shy reading the Quran in front of other people. It isn’t that I don’t want to comfort my uncle’s spirit. I just think I could do it in other ways.

I could make him a slime animal. I think he would like that. Or I could crochet him a little cap to wear to Friday prayers. Maybe I could bake him a cake. I heard he used to bake chocolate cakes with his friends every Thursday night for poor children who lived downtown. I think I would have loved baking cakes with him and taking them to the children.

But he isn’t here.

Do I miss him? Not really. How can you miss someone you never had in your life?

But maybe I do, just a little.

I miss him through my mother’s face and my grandparents’ faces.

It is July, and I am excited because it is my birthday. My mom smiles and acts happy, but I can sometimes see a little shadow on her face. Around the second week of July, she looks at me in a funny way, almost as if she is looking at someone else faraway instead of me.

I wonder why.

My mom is wonderful. She can do almost anything, and she is usually cheerful. Does she really miss her brother so much that, after all these years, she still tries to hide her sadness every July?

I have a brother, but he is kind of annoying. Was her brother better than mine?

I have lots of uncles. They are my parents’ Muslim friends, and they are all very kind. But what is it like to have your very own uncle? I don’t know.

What confuses me is this: how can you miss someone you never knew?

And yet, when I see my mother’s face and my Nano’s face, I think I miss him too. Maybe not because I knew him, but because they loved him so much. He must have been someone very special if they still miss him after all these years.

Do you have an uncle you miss?