eulogy for my uncle troy

My uncle Troy died this morning. He was 45-yrs-old. It's challenging for me to find the right words now to eulogize the man; I knew when I heard the phone ringing early this morning, the news was bad. My uncle (my mom's brother) was a sort-of "failure to launch" situation, in that he always lived with my grandmother, rarely worked, and had sex on, maybe, two occasions that I can recall. He was the source of great strife between my mother and her mother; my mom hated how he was coddled, my grandma was too afraid to be alone...And, unfortunately, the end of his life saw him suffering greatly from various drinking/drug-related ailments and turning into somewhat of a monster.

I will choose to remember him as I knew him when I was a little girl. We lived with him and my grandma until I was 12 and he was the only male figure in my life during that time. He enjoyed cooking for me after school and we would have long talks into the wee hours, when he would teach me everything he had learned about history and astronomy, via the Discovery Channel. He always had telescopes and we would look at the stars & planets together during humid Michigan summer nights. He was also very interested in the way rockets work (I was not, but feigned interest anyway) and we would drive out to the middle of nowhere to set them off.

He was a cool uncle and, although he was incapable of such responsibility, I believe he wished I was his daughter. Or at least, he told me thousands of times (with great pride in his voice) that he was at the hospital when I was born (my father, of course, couldn't be bothered) and the nurses mistook him for the father. I believe that was one of the proudest moments of his life - or at least, that is how he would speak of it.

He experienced the world via television and was the only one excited that I was going to Egypt. The last time we spoke, this is largely what we spoke about. I called him on his birthday (Dec. 10), which is two days before mine, and he told me all that he knew about Egypt or that which he could recall from the History Channel. He also told me that he was going to die and that he was ready. I didn't really know what to say - but I knew he was right. I made some gesture to indicate he would be fine, that he would visit the pyramids himself one day, but it was hardly convincing. Thankfully, the photos I sent from Egypt made it to him before he passed away and though I did not call in time to hear his reaction, I know seeing me ride a camel made him very proud.