Of My Flesh and Blood: Charlie A. Schmitz

Charles Adam Schmitz, Senior

Charles. Adam. Schmitz. Senior.

Strong name. Dependable. Trustworthy. Those are the words you think of with that name. My brother was all these and more.

Sure we can talk about our genealogy. He's the grandson and 2 x great grandson of Polish immigrants. 2nd great grandson of Danish and Belgium ancestors. All of which this blog is about. It's these thousand loves who made him up in body.

Or his obituary....

Or his entry on Find A Grave....

Or the flowers and memorials....

But he was so much more than that.

He was the brother who loved his many puppies, dogs and cats he had.

He was the brother who put up with his sisters putting him down the laundry chute two levels high and then put the dogs and puppies down after him.

Charlie with his older sisters in about 1965 at the age of 2.Copyright J. Fitzgerald

He was the big brother who would look one way, and me the other, keeping lookout for our mother while eating the fresh green beans from the garden. Because if we were caught, we'd know we'd get yelled at.

It was the climbing on the wood pile with him. And him jumping down off of it, and when I went to follow suit, and ended up with a nail through my foot.

Or the time we were going home on Christmas and we got in an accident with a snow plow. He jumped up and started giving the driver shit because his wife was newly pregnant. The first we heard of her being pregnant with their son, Junior.

The times he made 'stew' and then served to people he knew who didn't want to eat 'Bambi' stew, so told them it was beef. However, when the meal was over with, then he'd get the biggest grin and start laughing. Then would tell the person it was venison stew and let the games begin while he'd sit there grinning.

It was the time in installed a new tub in his house, then tried it out...only to have the pipe underneath disconnect and have the bathwater he was just in start to explode in their cellar. He started to swear while taking a naked run from the bathroom to the cellar before it was completely flooded. (The memory of him flashing me when he made his mad dash downstairs is still burnt into my eyeballs!)

Then there was his infectious laugh and smile which seemed almost permanent on his face.

Charlie with his youngest sister Jo Ann at Valley Central High School Graduation of a niece in 2000. He was just telling a dirty joke. Copyright Jo Ann Fitzgerald

He loved his wife, Kathy, of 33 years. In fact, he had people comment to them that it was nice to see people married as long as them and still holding hands. He was very proud of that fact.

He loved and was very proud of his son. He loved that they, as a team, built onto their house and bonded over this. Again, he was very proud of this.

He loved his family and his many friends as well. You can tell this by the many stories that have been quoted here already.

Yes, he loved hunting, hiking, fishing, making his wine, cooking and carpentry, but he loved the people much more than any of these things.

The above video (above) was taped off the TV local news in November 2001. This is only part of the video due to size restrictions on Blogger.

These stories, above, are what we tell to 'put the flesh' on the bones of the person. These are the stories which you want to hear and tells us more about the person.

This is how, now that he's passed, we need to remember. This is how he, his wife Kathy, and son, Junior (as he called him as a term of endearment) would want us to remember him. These are the important things in life.

We need to cherish each life as it had been lived.

Tell us, in comments below, how he influenced your life with him being in it.

Put more flesh on those bones of his...

....even though no matter how much we gave him to eat, he never seemed to put fat on that body.