"Uncles are there to help the child get into mischief they haven't thought of yet."

 "I smile because you're my uncle. I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it."

          W is for Wawa, the nickname of one of my uncles on my mother's side. His real name is William but got the nickname Wawa when my older sister could only say Wawa. Growing up, I had three uncles, but Uncle Wawa was both mature and really fun. I love all my uncles, but Wawa was most likely my favorite.

          Uncle Wawa takes care of his nieces and nephews almost as if they are his (he is the only one of his siblings without children). He truly cares for all of us all the time. I can always remember how laid back he was.

          I remember this one fishing trip. The people who were there were Victoria who is my oldest cousin, Uncle Wawa, one of his friends, and me. We went to a favorite fishing spot of Opa's, my grandfather. Uncle Wawa had accidentally caught an alligator, but in order to get the hook out of the gator's mouth, it had to be maneuvered out just right. The alligator wasn't giving up, so at one point the gator was on one side of the boat pulling. I thought the boat was going to flip, but, luckily, the line snapped before the boat flipped. Later on, the motor went out, so my uncle got into the water to fix the motor. To our luck, there weren't any alligators, and the motor was able to be fixed easily. Either that was our lucky day, or we have a Guardian Angel.

          On another fishing trip with Victoria, Uncle Wawa, Uncle Robert who is one of my mother's other brothers, and me, we had an interesting day. Victoria caught a small stingray and we did as we always did for something cool we caught. We put in it in the live well, an area used to keep fish and such alive. A little while later, we checked the live well only to discover that the stingray had given birth. Before the trip was over, we released both stingrays. Throughout the trip, we snapped lines trying to get out of tangled grass and pulled up odd items.

          I know that I can rely on Uncle Wawa to always be there for me. If I were to lose him any day now, I would break all over again. He is one of the limited amount of people that can open me to talk and express myself.