If you will indulge me for a moment, I'd like to just tell my friends here about one of the most remarkable men I've ever had the pleasure to know.  

Unlce Moe died about three weeks shy of his 96 birthday and truly personified what it meant to be a member of the "Greatest Generation" He was a first generation American, and the first and only of his six siblings to attend college.  He ultimately received his MD from Loyola University in Chicago, but enlisted in the US Army to aid the war effort before even starting his own practice.  As a doctor he workedd in the US Army Air Force as a flight surgeon, serving as a captain on  fllights on the Burma Hump throughout his time in service.

After leaving the USAAF at the conclusion of the war he returned to Miami where he became of one of the state's first licensed/certified pediatric cardiologists.  He was part of the group of doctors that helped found the National Children's Cardiology Hospital in Miami in the 1950's (now part of the Univ. of Miami) and also maintained his own practice for 50 years.  Uncle Moe was a master diagnostician, helping save my cousin's life over the phone by giving instructions to doctors treating him in Birmingham in the 1970s, as well as also diagnosing a friend's dad who had been having health issues but no answers, simply by walking past him on his way to lunch.  That said, he also was great at making sure people didn't panic, such as when my mom brought one of my brother's to see him when he was three years old and had fallen in a store and hit his head on a rack.  My brother had a huge lump growing out of his forehead and my mother was worried about head trauma.  Uncle Moe took one look at him as she walked in, said, "Mama GC, you should always hit them where the evidence isn't so noticeable" and then told her that he would look at my brother after he finished his tuna sandwich.  Years after his retirement total strangers who saw us with him would run up to him like he was a celebrity, including a waitress at his 95th birthday party last year who saw him and had to immediately text a picture to her parents and sisters, who immediately called because they wanted to say hello.

Beyond being a veteran and an amazing doctor, what truly defined Uncle Moe was his love for his family.  He looked at my kids like his own grandkids, and when we saw him just a few weeks ago, he reveled in every minute with them.  Putting Legos together with my son, and letting my daughter put lipstick on him so he'd be pretty for the picture.  It is a memory I will cherish forever.  

The thing that to me though will always stick with me is the sailor's hat he wore for the past 10 years.  Uncle Moe was in the Army, not the Navy, and in fact, tended to get rather sea sick so he never really went on boats.  He started wearing the sailors hat shortly after his wife passed away in 2003.  After wearing it for a year or so, and just assuming he was going a bit senile, his daughter asked him during my wedding weekend what the deal with the hat was.  He turned to her and said, "shortly before your mother died we were shopping together and I put it on to make her laugh.  She looked at me and said I have never been more handsome in my life.  She might not be here anymore, but I know she is watching me, and I always want to look my best for her" The man was devoted to his wife, even in the most subtle and bizzare ways. His legacy is likely impossible to live up to, but I know I try my damndest to be like him in whatever way I can each and every day.

Thanks for you indulgence, I appreciate it.  G-d bless you Uncle Moe.