Uncle Roger and me at the 2013 Hines Family Reunion

Somewhere in Georgia tonight my Uncle Roger is looking at the time of night and perhaps reading something.  Maybe he picked something up and put it down earlier than he planned.  For all I know he sat down today and read an entire novella in one setting.  The truth is, and I know many would attest to this, I just don’t know.  I have not talked to Uncle Roger in some time.  We have exchanged emails in the last month which means we put a few lines to each other’s way to acknowledge our existence with a few kind words thrown in for good measure and earnest faith.

I emailed him because I had stumbled across, thankfully, a piece of writing he penned that is over twenty years old.  I told him it is one of my favorite pieces of writing.  As I read it this many years on, I can still hear his kind, distinctly southern, life-giving voice.

A short time after I sent Uncle Roger an email,  I discovered he was going to have heart surgery.  I have heard the term “routine” thrown around when this procedure is mentioned.  Routine…until it needs to be done on you, I say.

Don’t get me wrong.  I have complete faith that Uncle Roger will come through his “procedure” just fine and he will press onward.  Whatever a mitral valve prolapse is,  I am confident that with the help of a skilled surgeon, Uncle Roger will kick its butt.

I’m sorry you won’t get to hear about Uncle Roger in the context he deserves.  If you have driven on Interstate 20 east of Jackson, Mississippi, you have driven a road he helped to plot.

Working ahead of a his time in 1960-something…I am bound to get the year wrong…he volunteered to teach at an all black high school in Meridian, Mississippi.  I have seen the photo of the faculty from that school year.  My uncle is the only white teacher and none of them could have been prouder to be there.  Isn’t it a shame that Hollywood won’t make a movie about Uncle Roger and his heart and desire to help students…black students…in that day and time in Mississippi.  He didn’t cause enough trouble for Hollywood.

I referenced the first paragraph of this post as a mirror to what I might be doing if I faced what my Uncle Roger is facing on April 16th this week.  I know he is also staying close to his wife Nancy and I know they are praying together.  If two kids were ever meant for each other, Roger and Nancy would be those two kids.

Roger and Nancy have four children.  I know they are faithful to our God and still anxious as they think about their beloved earthly father as he goes through the stress and anxiety of what April 16th will bring.  These are my cousins.  I love them and my heart is with them.

My Uncle Roger is an English teacher.  He always will be.  Did I take up a career in education because of him?  No… I did not.  Still it has been great to discuss and chew on with him the things that make students better students and better people.  The catalog of students’ lives he has touched is immeasurable.  Move over Mr. Holland.

Uncle Roger was a State Representative in Georgia for a number of years.  He even ran for Congress.  Had the dollar signs gone his way, and enough people had good sense, he would be taking a respite from Washington to have this procedure.  Or would he?  With his strong sense of service, I am delighted he is not in Washington.  I am glad he is outside of Atlanta trying to take care of himself.

The best thing I have left to say is that I am looking forward to visiting him again…perhaps this summer.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I spent a couple nights with Uncle Roger and Aunt Nancy a few years ago.  To hear those stories about his sixteen brothers and sisters, my mother being one of them, was pure joy and discovery.  We sat and talked into the night until the clock told us the next day had crept up on us at about story number forty-seven.  Good times.  Good times indeed.

Our hearts and prayers are with you, Uncle Roger…and Aunt Nancy….and cousins Christy, Wendy, Jeff, and Reagan…and their families. I look forward to the day we look at each other and talk about how it all went.  Uncle Roger will surely lead the discussion, as he should.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson