We were sitting by the pool at the hotel, watching the kids swim when out of nowhere my Uncle Roy asked me, “when did you stop wearing watches?”

I looked down at my wrists and sure enough, there was not a watch on either one of my wrists. I don’t know why I looked at my wrists because I knew there wouldn’t be any watches on them, I stopped wearing a watch long ago. I looked at my uncle and wanted to reply with a witty comment about not letting time rule my life or something like that, but all I said was, “I used to have a cool Mickey Mouse watch that I wore all the time, but when I got the job working as a cashier at the grocery store I stopped wearing it because I would bang it against something when I was checking out the customers.”

He looked up at the clear blue sky, looked at me, and then looked at the shinny silver watch on his right wrist. I watched as he looked at his watch and I wondered what he was thinking about. Maybe he was thinking about the time he bought it or about the time someone gave it to him. I don’t know, all I know is that it’s strange how time changes us making us older and taking away that youth that we once took for granted. My Uncle Roy is older and I’m older too. I understand more than I used and I see how time has taken it‘s toll on him. He has not been in the best of health recently and on occasion I could see that he was tired, but sometimes, just sometimes; I don’t know if it was the way the light shined or the way I squinted my eyes against the bright sun, I don’t know what it was; but sometimes I would look at him and catch a fleeting glimpse of the man he used to be.

I watched my Uncle Roy look at his watch and I began to see him as the young man he used to be when I was a kid and secretly wanted to be like him. Out of all my father’s brothers I think he was the most outgoing. He could walk up to any stranger at any time and strike up a conversation with them. If a person was feeling down he knew exactly what to say to make that person feel better. I remember that it was his shoulder I had cried into outside the church when they had my grandmother’s funeral. I had tried to be the strong grandkid and not show any emotion as my grandfather spoke in front of a church full of friends and family, but as he spoke I could feel my eyes start to water, so I walked outside because I was the strong grandkid and I didn’t want anyone to see me cry. As I walked outside the sun was bright and it stung my eyes, everything was blurred and it was then that I realized it wasn’t the sun that stung my eyes but the tears that were falling. I saw my uncle standing outside, maybe he wanted to be the strong son and not let anyone see him cry either. He came up to me and put his arms around me and that was all it took. I buried my face into his dark jacket and cried like a little kid. He held me and let me cry - he stroked my head and told me that it was ok to cry. He didn’t care if I was the strong grandkid or not. He just showed me unconditional love.

“Hey Tony,” my thoughts were interrupted by my uncle’s voice. “Try this on and see how it fits.” He said as he took the silver watch off his wrist.

I put the watch on and told him that it was a nice watch. He told me that I could keep it so that I would have something to remember him by.

I’m looking at the watch right now and I’m thinking the watch is very nice and I love it a lot, but I don’t need it to remember him by - I have all these memories, some happy and some sad, but they are all wonderful and they are all in my head and in my heart.