Today, we buried another person from my paternal bloodline: retired Chicago police officer James P. Raspberry. He was known as "Uncle Jimmy" due to our age difference and his sibling-like relationship with my father, AB Raspberry-- his first cousin.
Uncle Jimmy died on June 6 from congestive heart failure. However, his life story is what intrigues people who never met him-- including Maureen O'Donnell from the Chicago Sun-Times. (Click the link above for her amazing obituary)
Ms. O'Donnell was the perfect person to tell his story because she has a gift for analyzing the right details of someone's life after they have passed. One detail that caught her ear in phone interviews was Uncle Jimmy's stature. He was 6-foot-4 without shoes; with his police cap, he appeared much taller.
For me, the greatest thing about him was that we shared the same birthday: July 23.

According to others, his work with troubled youth on Chicago's West Side was what made him so great.
In his own family, he helped my siblings, cousins, and I experience the finer things in life. He believed in sharing what he had with others; he believed in family.
Today, we kept that going. We shared love with one another and shared memories of how great he was. This Father's Day is going to be a bittersweet one because we won't be able to honor him physically. But we can rest assured that his spirit lives on and he will forever be in our memories.
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