James William Dodd Jr.

My Mom's oldest brother, James William Dodd Jr. passed away this morning. Uncle Jim was so much loved we will all miss him more than I can say.

I have so many memories of Uncle Jim. He was so tall, I imagine about 6 ft 3 inches, that I thought he was scary when I was a little girl just because he was so big. Whenever we would get out of line he'd tell us , "You better knock it off before I cloud up and rain all over you." I laugh now but I can tell you we straightened up immediately when he said to. We did not live around him and Aunt Jody too much when I was real young but I did get to know him when I got older and really learned to love him very much. I also remember once when I was real young him and a friend of his trying to fry an egg on the hood of his car out in front of Grandma Dodd's house in Mesquite.

I also remember when I was young finding out that Uncle Jim smoked. That made him all the more the "romantic rebel" to me. I was amazed he smoked because in an all Mormon family that was so far out of the norm that it was almost unbelievable. He never smoked around any of us and didn't want anyone to know, and I'm not even sure how I found out, I just remember being sad that our family was so judgemental that he had to be ashamed of the fact. I remember that Grandpa Dodd loved to drink coke and back in the day that was about as bad as drinking a beer would be today. He used to hide his coke in the shed out in back of the house in Meridian and he and I would sneak out there and have a "Co-cola" away from the watchful eyes of the family. Anyway at some point Uncle Jim was able to quit smoking and I was always glad that he was able to quit so he didn't have to feel ashamed anymore. I always remembered that years later when I married Angelo and he smoked and a few of the younger kids in the family would tease my kids and tell them we were not going to heaven cause their Dad smoked. It amazed me that people could be so amazingly dense on a subject generation after generation. I have since learned to forgive the lack of understanding but still feel sad that so many people in our family have been made to suffer. In the last few years Uncle Jim was blind and had both legs amputated from diabetes. I hope he is running around in heaven seeing the sights.

Teddi Jo and Uncle Jim had a special bond that developed when we lived in Idaho in the early 2000's. Lord knows my kids needed someone at that time, I was such a mess. I will always appreciate Uncle Jim for loving my Teddi and providing a father figure to her when she so needed one. So rest in peace Uncle Jim and tell Dad we miss him and please hug his neck for me!