My Uncle Denny

On Tuesday, February 27th, my parents, Nate and I were driving up to see my younger step-son's school program. My mom was telling me about how her brother called to see if she could find out about fixing his cuckoo clock and to find some pennies he collects.

On Thursday, March 1st, Denny went to bed and didn't wake to a conscious state again.

Monday, March 5th, 2018... My Uncle Denny Stowell passed away at the age of 62.

Stowell Christmas 2001
Grandma (Lola), Mom (Cheryl), Uncle Denny, Aunt Bonnie, Grandpa (Ken)

My heart breaks.

There's so many happy, fun memories of Denny. 

When I was very young, they used to live here so we would see each other often. He was the one always making people laugh. His high school class reunion is coming up this year and it sounds like he may have been a class clown.

Denny was always in plays and productions. He was part of the Cumberland Rose Players which are still active here in town. But he was a part of other play companies as well. As far as I know, he always played the funny character. At least that is what I remember. We nieces remember going to see him in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Our grandparents took us. Then we went to Denny's house afterwards. Doing these types of things together are some of the best memories!!

Some of the programs from his plays

My mom had two siblings. A sister and a brother. 

My mom, Bonnie, Denny

Bonnie and Denny

Bonnie has three daughters. Denny has two sons and a daughter. We'd get together every summer and every Christmas for sure. I think it was more often when I was younger because we all lived closer together.

I remember when Denny gave us a toy bull. Most of you probably know of a toy horse that had four springs you could sit on. Well, this was a bull with one spring in the middle. We set it up in our toy room and had a blast!

I can close my eyes and see so many things. It's nice to have old family movies in my mind or pictures that we can see. We used to sing carols around the piano at Christmas time. Denny could sing!! He loved to sing the silly songs like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. My sisters remember a time when we had just sang Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Denny sang a song called Deadeye the deadeye Cowboy. 

Deadeye, the deadeye Cowboy had a very shiny gun

And if you ever saw him you would turn around and run

All of the other cowboys used to laugh and call him names

They never let poor Deadeye play any cowboy games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Sheriff Came to say,

"Deadeye with your gun so bright won't you shoot my wife tonight?"

Then all the Cowboys loved him. As they shouted out with glee

"Deadeye the deadeye Cowboy, you'll go down in history!"

That was Uncle Denny!

It's hard to put into words all the different comedic things he did when we were all gathered together.


It's hard to put into words all the thoughts and feelings I'm having right now.


In 2011 there was an accident at his work that left him a paraplegic. Everything changed.
He couldn't make it down like he did before.

I made a point to drive Grandma up to see him once a month or every other month. He and I would banter back and forth in a joking way. Grandma would get on his case for drinking and smoking. We'd catch up with his girlfriend who'd take care of him.

As we'd get ready to leave, I'd give him a hug and he'd say 

"thanks for bringing my mama up." 

As Grandma's dementia got worse, I just couldn't do it anymore. 

He made it to a few Christmases but he seemed different. Not just physically. Something had changed. I'm not sure if anyone could have pinpointed it and maybe it was different every time. He would still joke around and we would joke back but maybe it was a different kind of joke. I don't know. 

The day of his funeral was very hard. I had been to the visitation. For us, being so far from home, there really wasn't but a handful of people that came to talk to us.

The funeral was the day Grandma saw him. Seeing her cry broke my heart.
I stayed strong while she was by my side but then I broke down in my sister's arms.

After the funeral, one of my mom's cousins was crying so hard it got my mom started. It was a domino affect from there. We were saying our final goodbye before they closed the casket. I looked at my older two sisters and were surprised to see them crying so much so we all put our arms around each other. Then our younger sister looked and saw us which caused her to start. The four of us hugged and cried as two of my nieces were in the middle tearing up not sure what to do.
As we broke up, I walked to the casket again. Then I turned around and saw my mom really crying. In my mind this was good because I feel like she always has to be strong for everybody. I hugged her and I cried harder again.
When I turned back around I saw my youngest niece next to the casket.

Let me interject with this story.. My younger sister has two daughters. One day out of the blue the older one asked if Uncle Denny was still alive. That was quite a while ago and they have been praying for him ever since. It was very important to them that they be up here. In fact, they wanted to be here before he passed away but it didn't work out that way. The younger one shares a birthday with Denny. She kept saying "I wish Uncle Denny was alive" or something along those lines.
Several times during the visitation she would just go up to the casket and look.

Back to the funeral.. I saw my youngest niece next to the casket. I went and asked if she wanted up. I held her and let her look. She asked why I was crying. I said "Because I wish Uncle Denny was still alive, too, and right now we are saying our final goodbye. This is our last look." She put her head on my shoulder.
"Are you ready to go?" I whispered.
She nodded.
I set her down and she ran to my dad and hugged his knees. He picked her up and she wrapped her arms around his neck and put her head on his shoulder. He had tears as well.

Funerals are so hard. There's so many emotions happening. So many memories come rushing back like a flood of rushing waters. It's fun to talk about those memories with others but hard realizing that person who played a huge part is now gone.

I know I normally have a "moral to the story" but I'm not sure I do. I just wanted to talk about my uncle. My funny uncle Denny.

Feeding a Raccoon

My Grandparents' 50th
My mom, Denny, Bonnie

The first Great Grandkids

(Denny's Great-Nephews)

Denny with his three kids
Deidra, Dustin and Devin

MY UNCLE DENNY

You will be missed.