My Uncle Pat

My uncle Pat holding his dog drawing.

My uncle Pat is a gentle soul. He's always smiling and will laugh in a heart beat if you say something funny. I love him dearly.

Pat is the younger brother of my mom and he was born mentally handicapped. Pat is 58 years old now and even though his mental capacity is some where in the range of a 7-9 year old, he possesses more common sense than a lot of people I know.

So when I got to hang out with Pat this Thanks giving I handed him a sketch book and a pen and said "Pat, draw a dog." He smiled and started drawing.


Uncle Pats dog drawing.

I had no idea how this was going to turn out? As I watched him draw I found it curious that he seemed to be keeping the drawing symmetrical.

As he was drawing I heard him say softly "I'm not very good am I?" to which I responded "There is no wrong way to draw Pat. You're doing fine."

When he was done he handed the sketchbook back to me and I said "Is this a Martian dog Pat?" We all laughed. My wife said "It kind of looks like a cow." We all laughed again.


Separated at Birth: Ron Perlman and Uncle Pat

That same day I mentioned to Pat that he resembled the actor Ron Perlman. I googled a picture on my iPhone and showed him. I than asked him to pose the same way and told him I'd put it on my blog. He thought that was pretty cool and smiled.


The Cheshire Pat.

Pat's smile is infectious. And we always have fun joking around with him and laughing together. Pat also has a habit of saying "I'm Sorry." for absolutely no reason at all, which has also made us all laugh at times too as you'll see in the below video.

I'll be sharing this post with him at Christmas so take a few minutes and leave my uncle a comment, I know he'll get a kick when I share them with him. Thanks!

Meet Uncle Pat