Uncle Ralph (Ralph Miller to those who knew him in other parts of his life.) was surely a great uncle. He loved being such to my sisters' kids, but he was also great to the Oklahoma Miller kids -- no matter how old we got to be. It sort of embarrassed him that adults as old and big as we've gotten to be still called him Uncle, but we couldn't have thought of him any other way.
Uncle Ralph may not have been our only Uncle, but he was his own kind of uncle. He reminded us of the sort of man our dad was, and Uncle Ralph's tenderness and sentimentality must have run in the family, because Daddy (Uncle Ed to the California Millers) was very much the same way. They also put family above everything, church high on the list, and travel as a priority in their lives. The last must have come from their dad -- the inimitable Ralph F.
On the other hand there were things about Uncle Ralph that were completely different from Daddy. Uncle Ralph liked opera and little theatre -- hardly passions of his brother Ed. And their politics never exactly meshed -- something they learned to accept and even laugh about in one another.
We'll miss Uncle Ralph a lot, but someone as alive, energetic (sometimes chaotically so), and distinctive as he was will not be forgotten by those of us who have loved and been fortunate to be loved by him.
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