Hey Blue, And There is a Song For You

This one is from my mom:

“Some people grow up with siblings but don’t really connect. They grow up beside them. I grew up WITH my brother. My first memory is of Jamie asking to hold me for the camera. I wasn’t talking yet but could feel my parents’ hesitation with a toddler holding a baby. They put me next to him with support from couch pillows and we stared into the camera. He cuddled close to me to protect me. And he never stopped. James Steven Kaplan. August 7, 1947 – June 30, 2022. Journey on, brother. Find the light.”

This one is from my sister, Lindsay:

“I’m as lucky as can be.
The world’s greatest
uncle belongs to me.

Yesterday I lost one of my best friends, my uncle James S Kaplan, my mothers only brother, a man unlike no other.

Uncle Jamie had the biggest heart around. He’d travel the world and always think of his friends and family, never missing a holiday and/or birthday, always always remembering his niece and nephews and great niece and nephews.

I have so so so many memories, childhood and adulthood. He’d take me to NY to see a play, and was there for every summer vacation, Thanksgiving, and Xmas holiday. He joined us in almost anything and everything he could. He protected my mother when my father passed away, and in turn became a father figure to us.

He then took on his new brother in law and new nieces and nephews like they were his own when my mom remarried, because uncle Jamie’s heart could only grow bigger by the day.

His love for us had no boundaries and never will. In the end I was able to face time him with my children and although I had to hide my tears, I know our presence meant the world to him. I wish we could’ve been there in person, but I know his heart knew we were and no miles mattered when it comes to knowing in your heart who is there for you.

You will forever be one of my biggest cheerleaders, a best friend and my uncle. I will miss and love you forever Uncle Jamie, as will my family as I watch them grow and know Parker has inherited your huge huge heart. You were all heart, all of the time. I am so, so, so sad to know you are not here. Although I do think you lived a great life, and in the end quality of life was not there…… you are no longer in pain, just us the living are, and we are also relieved for your pain ending…

You were a one in a million uncle, I will love you forever and cherish the millions of memories we shared❤️. I’ll take care of your sister now Jamie, your work here is done. Mom will be ok, we got her.

RIP xo
Your loving niece”

This one is from me:

“I’ve been wanting so badly to post about my Uncle Jamie, but really the words escape me, and I was waiting for my mom and sister to also be ready.

I’ve never in my life met anyone who is as strong and gentle as he was. And I probably never will. I don’t really know how to maneuver a world without him, but we will do the best damn job we can, to honor his amazing legacy.

Here are five of my favorite memories:

• Right after my father died, he took my mom and sister and I from New Jersey to New Hampshire, stopping at a cool town called Northampton in Massachusetts, and eating at a little diner called the Miss Florence diner.

• He used to go on vacation with us and once I got a really bad sunburn in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and he held me in the pool, calmly splashing cold water on my flaming cheeks. We swayed like that for what seemed like hours.

• We wanted to go on a sky ride together at an amusement park, but I told him he wasn’t allowed to fart on the ride, because I was afraid it would fall from the sky. When we got off the ride, safely, he laughed and told me he had farted silently.

• When I was in college, he called me from Lebanon and told me about what it was like to hear the waves crashing on the shore.

• After Scarlet was born, he would send her gifts to celebrate each new month of her life. They often didn’t have notes so we had no idea where they were coming from but each one was appreciated.”