Remembering Uncle Darvin

News from Bluffton:  my uncle Darvin died on Friday at age 91, in the Riley Creek home he and aunt Evelyn loved.  He was the family patriarch for many years, and we will miss him.

To me, his home was a place of riches, always.  In the house on Elm Street, there was a grape arbor, a tv, a Monopoly game, a wonderful garden, a former chicken coop far enough back in the yard that it seemed like a different place.  My cousin Gregg and I were playing there one summer day when Darvin called to us and we slunk into the house, certain that we were in some undetermined trouble.  But what awaited us were root beer floats, my first, a sweet treat that tasted incredible.  I remember a summer meal under the grape arbor, the picnic table, the shady spot.  It fed my child's heart as well as my stomach.

For the former art teacher, Darvin's home was a place of art.  I love the piece in his entryway that reads, "When the world wearies and ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden."  And garden he did, far into his 80's.  And create he did, always, but his art perfected looking as well as making.  He photographed and collected pieces that looked like something else, that tickled his fancy.

He chose joy, loved a whole list of life happenings.  Instead of a mumbled grace before meals, he loved to sing the Johnny Appleseed song.  He loved to share meals - many times when I meet someone they will say, "I had dinner with your aunt and uncle at their house one evening."  He loved stories, loved to tell them, loved to hear them.  His ability and willingness to "talk Swiss" was amazing to me - in my home I would beg my parents to speak some Swiss words but they would decline. 

Darvin taught art at what-was-then Bluffton College for many years, and I always marveled over the story of his carrying buckets of clay up three flights of stairs to what at that time was the art space.  Amazing too was his spirit in choosing art as a career, growing up in a family and the post-depression time where the practical, not the artistic, was valued.

I love the pictures of Darvin with his new great-granddaughter Milena because he loved his family, all of them.  Nieces and nephews included.  We will all miss him.

(Thanks to Kristen for sharing the photo.)