The Spirit of Uncle Mike

The Spirit of Uncle Mike

Uncle Mike’s pioneering spirit lays the groundwork for Joseph’s life.   

The setting of the novel is after Joseph’s Uncle Mike had died. However, Joseph came to know and care for his uncle before his death. They were drawn to each other by a similar personality, a personality molded by Mike’s parents, Joseph’s grandparents.

When Joseph was very young, his parents died in an automobile accident. Then Joseph’s grandparents raised him. Like Mike, Joseph grew close to his grandparents. He adopted their conservative values, loving nature and appreciating hard work. Mike’s lethargic, party-loving brothers sneered at him, resulting in Mike striking off on his own. He bought a farm. Years later Joseph came visit and appreciate his uncle.

While Mike’s farming was a financially success, he was lonely. Until Joseph started visiting him, he only had his dog, Butch, and his hired hand and good friend, Thomas. Mike’s will testifies to the importance of Joseph and Thomas in his life. Joseph tells Jill:

Uncle Mike left me two-thirds of his land.  . . . I only visited a few times, and he gave me two-thirds of his land! I was only twenty-one. His will said I was like a son to him. Uncle Mike never married. .  . . .

Thomas was like an answer to a prayer. The doctor told Uncle Mike, because of a heart problem, he shouldn’t over tax himself. Then Thomas appeared asking for a job. Later Thomas and Rebecca cared for Uncle Mike during his last half-year when he was bed ridden, just as if he was part of their family. So Uncle Mike gave him a third of his land. He asked Thomas to look after me until I got my farming feet under me.

Joseph loved his uncle and lived like him. There was only one aspect of Mike’s life that Joseph did not want to follow. He tells Jill:

I’m afraid I might end up like Uncle Mike. I’ll die alone, unmarried, without children.

A sign of how important his uncle was to Joseph is an oak tree. Mike had planted it by the garden when he first moved to the farm. It reminded Joseph of the dreams his uncle had for the farm. When his uncle died, Joseph planted a weeping birch tree near it. The two trees helped Joseph during his grieving.  They’re what he most missed when he moved to Camrose. He told his daughters:

Sometimes I’d watch the spray of the sprinkler watering the sentinels of the garden. The droplets of water falling from the oak’s leaves made me think Uncle Mike was crying because he was no longer with me.

Jill’s father, Frank Rezley, in Baggage burdens. haunts her most of her life. See some of his troubling effects in my next blog for the answer.