In 1998 my family moved back to the United States from expatriation in Hong Kong, SAR, China. I was exicted to see my family and friends who I was only able to visit with for short periods of time during our annual trip home to the U.S. each summer.

Upon our arrival at my grandparents house in central Indiana, newly acclimated to teenage life in the States, I found out that my Uncle Bob had cancer.

My Mom's younger brother, Bobby had been a smoker since high school. He served in the U.S. Army during Vietnam - in Germany, luckily, due to a photographic memory and was assigned as an aid to a high ranking officer. He had a son, my cousin, named for him and now worked at a library with my Grandmother in my Mom's hometown.

Before sharing his illness with the family, Uncle Bob helped to update my grandparents home. He bought them a new microwave, shutters and repainted and relandscaped the home - all the while not receiving any treatment or seeing an oncologist. He wanted to be sure they were taken care of when he was gone.

Within a year, my Uncle Bob was gone. The cancer spread to his brain and there was little the doctors could do except keep him comfortable. I will never forget how weak he looked in the hospital... but through it all, he had a smile on his face and was quick with a joke.

My Uncle Bob... the man who encouraged me to sing loud with him as he played his guitar, took me on long walks to Dairy Queen and loved me like I was his own daughter, passed away my senior year of high school. He didn't get to see me graduate high school or college, and he never saw me sing on a stage. There really isn't a day I don't think about him. He deserves to be on this Memory Wall as much as any celebrity for he was truly loved and is missed every day.