Uncle Bud

I recently went to Edgar Call's funeral...or as we all know him by: Bud.  Everyone loved being around Bud.  He was hilarious.  He didn't really have a filter which is what made him so fun to be around.  He was a huge tease and was always giving his sweet wife a hard time.  Bud was my dad's uncle.  My dad's dad passed away when my dad was in his mid 20's.  I still remember that day and I was only 4.  My dad always loved his Uncle Bud and I think he looked up to him even more after his own dad passed away.  I remember going to their cabin in Yellowstone and fishing.  It was always such a long ride!

They always came to Lawana's Christmas Party every year until the last few years when their health started declining.  One of those Christmas Parties though that I remember of Bud was when we were playing the sign game with adults and little kids.  Uncle Bud had to come up with a sign, and you could tell he barely understood how to play the game.  So he flips the bird.  Well ok, so when a kid wanted his attention they had to flip him the bird. Awesome!  We all had a good laugh.

His health declined and my parents made a few trips down to see him those last few weeks.  I hadn't seen him in a few years.  But by dad was asked to say the family prayer before closing the casket and speak at his funeral.  He did such an amazing job.  They never had kids so their nieces and nephews were like their own kids.

This is the epitome of how I remember Bud:

One of the stories they told at his funeral was he was a pilot during the war.  His mission was to fly from France to Germany and drop bombs.  If I can remember right an average pilot flew about 15 missions and had about a 50% chance of returning home.  He flew over 20 missions.  Each morning he would wake up in France.  See children playing outside.  Go get in his plane.  Start flying to Germany. German planes would start shooting at him until he was close enough to enemy territory when they would stop.  He would drop the bombs, turn the plane around, and then do the same thing flying back to France with Germans shooting at him.  Well on one of those trips they were shot at and somehow the ammunition box in their plane started shooting off the bullets.  With bullets flying Bud kept flying the plane and in a panic his partner, finally realizing it was coming from their own ammunition box, pushed the box out of the plane.  When they landed they counted over 100 bullet holes in the plane...all coming from the inside out!  Amazing.

Bud and Ora

We will miss you Bud!  I know your brother was there to welcome you into Heaven.