SEPTEMBER 7, 2023 – The next morning I flew back to my normal life back in Minnesota. Between work and family I had plenty to distract me from 42 Baghdad Street. I would remain distracted until a couple of weeks later when Cliff called with an update, as planned. “Hey, Cliff,” I answered, stretching the …

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023 – Cliff and I had labored over the presentation. First was my script, for it was decided that since I was the true nephew, it was important for me to deliver the message, though I was “Minnesota,” and Cliff was “New Jersey,” and the message definitely had to be “New Jersey Direct” …

SEPTEMBER 5 2023 – After the warehouse tour (See 9/3/23 post), we encountered an Asian woman exiting her car parked in the driveway behind the warehouses. “Young-hee!” Cliff called out. “What brings you back here?” I recognized the name. (See 8/26/23 post). Our introduction triggered what could have been an even more revealing conversation than …

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 – The American Field Service Ambulance Corps, which morphed into the modern day “AFS” (think: “AFS exchange students” and other global intercultural affairs), was established in April 1915 to support the Allied war effort on the Western Front. Before the U.S. entered the conflict in April 1917, it became de rigueur among …

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023 – With UB in the hospital and out of our hair, Cliff suggested we that we take a little tour of the more troubled realms of the warehouse.  “A few weeks ago,” he explained, “we had this big snowstorm that dumped tons of snow on the roof, and when it melted, it …

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023 – Later that morning following UB’s emergency re-hospitalization, I borrowed Cliff’s van and drove to Passaic General to visit the patient. His procedure—draining fluid off his heart—had gone well and by the time of my arrival, UB was as alert as ever. In fact, for the first time I could remember he …

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023 – Whenever I seek and am denied permission, I remember that forgiveness is more easily obtained.  Cliff and I didn’t exactly ask for the hospital staff for permission to confront UB with the “contract,” but in effect permission is what we sought when the nurse at the desk answered our question with …

AUGUST 31, 2023 – That evening while the Serb was exiting UB’s life for good—or so we led ourselves to believe, despite Jeanette’s prescient skepticism—Cliff with his customary directness urged resolution of the issues that UB had created for himself, for all of us.  The master of horror convinced me that now was the time …

AUGUST 30, 2023 – After we signed in at the security desk, Cliff led the way to the cardiology unit and strode straight into UB’s room.  “Look who just arrived from Minnesota!” said Cliff. “Ha!” said the patient, seated in a large recliner next to his bed.  “Great to see you!” His eyes lit up. …

AUGUST 29, 2023 – We met in the kitchen.  His eyes were dark and nervous, and he looked scared and pathetic. Just as Nina had observed, Alex had the shakes. A very bad case of them. I started right in on the deposition, as it were. “Sit down, Alex.  I have some questions I need …

AUGUST 28, 2023 – The back entryway was bursting with clutter.  I stopped to survey the wreckage: a broken umbrella; large plastic garbage bags stuffed with crap; shovels and rakes leaning in all directions of the compass; several randomly placed outdoor thermometers still in their K-Mart packaging; a precarious pile of rotting newspapers with an …

AUGUST 27, 2023 – His health crisis per se wasn’t the prime motivation for me to make a hastily arranged flight to New Jersey for the first time in seven and a half years.  Who knows how much longer it would have been had he not undergone emergency, triple bypass surgery.  It was the opportunity …

AUGUST 26, 2023 – In time, my anger and disgust toward UB dissipated.  Perhaps it was simply time and distance that allowed me to move on, or maybe the demands and distractions of my daily existence back in Minnesota displaced the demons that had temporarily overpowered me in New Jersey.  The story of the “man …

AUGUST 25, 2023 – When I arrived in Rutherford the next morning, no one was around.  However, UB’s Headquarters were wide open, so I entered, poked around to find what I could among all the water-logged papers and piles of junk.  I began copying an appraisal and soon decided simply to stuff the thick, spiral-bound …

AUGUST 24, 2023 – I remember well the day:  Sunday, September 20, 1998.  After a restless sleep as a guest at Jenny and Garrisons’s Upper West Side apartment, I decided it would serve me well to go to church, more for refuge than anything else.  And if revelations, observations, conversations of the past week impelled …

AUGUST 23, 2023 – UB served as navigator to Route 17 leading north.  We then fell silent, as UB opened up the day’s edition of The Times.  After a few miles, though, I glanced over and noticed that his hands had sagged and the paper, still open, had crumpled onto itself.  UB’s chin was on …

AUGUST 22, 2023 – At 6:30 that Friday and according to plan, I rode with Cliff to his house in Pompton Lakes for dinner and an overnight stay.  It was an evening I will never forget, and an occasion on which I would gain further and surprising insight into this Holman tenant turned unlikely Holman …

AUGUST 21, 2023 – That afternoon, while UB putzed around amidst the collection of jumbled junk and trash that filled his headquarters area, I sat down at the desk in Headquarters Central to read and respond to my office email. As I waited for my laptop to fire up, I turned to the metal shelves …

AUGUST 20, 2023 – Blogger’s note: Ninety-nine years ago today was UB’s birthday. As soon as the Fox and the Wolf were gone, UB and I returned to the issue of getting the roof of the house restored.  Now that the scammers and schemers had pretty much been discredited—in my mind, anyway—I suggested to UB …

AUGUST 19, 2023 – The following morning, I got off to a late start and reached “Holman Corner” considerably later than I had planned.  UB, of course, had long been on hand.  Barely had I arrived, when our friend Frank descended upon us—our sleazy, slimy friend, Frank—this time, with another guy in tow, but not …

AUGUST 17, 2023 – The meeting with Frank and Duane broke up at noon, and UB then drove me to his temporary apartment in East Rutherford.  It was a wonderful place, really—brand new, thoroughly attractive abode, with everything tastefully designed.  I thought UB should be very pleased with these circumstances while he waited for the …

AUGUST 16, 2023 – About three weeks later, I boarded Amtrak in St. Paul, bound for Penn Station in New York City.  It was during my aerophobic phase.  I had to fly a fair amount on my job, and for crying out loud, I’d had to fly many times during all the years I’d been …

AUGUST 15, 2023 – I don’t know exactly when “Uncle Bruce” became “UB,” but it was definitely after the verdict was in that he was out of his mind.  I think it was probably a way for my sisters and me, and Cliff, for that matter, to separate the Uncle Bruce whom we had known …

AUGUST 14, 2023 – (Cont.) On the long train ride home, Cliff and I had ample time to continue the open-ended conversation that we had begun a week earlier.  As the miles passed and Uncle Bruce was asleep in his compartment and Cory was snoozing in the upper bunk of ours, Cliff and I sat …