My Uncle Richard

Richard Flavin, my mom Maureen’s brother, was my uncle and my Godfather. While I didn’t know him very well, I do have great memories of his visits to the states which seemed to be about every 5 years or so. Whenever he came home to visit in Mass, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins would all get together with Richard the center of the visit. I recall how he always brought wonderful gifts from Japan which is where my love of Japanese decor began. The very first gift he gave me was a little pair of wooden Japanese shoes which were painted with beautiful designs. I even brought them to my first grade show and tell.
My next memory is when we all went down the Cape (Cape Cod) to my grandparents house to visit Richard and Haruko. While we were there, Haruko made a Japanese dessert similar to pudding, which consisted of seaweed. I remember thinking how awful it was going to be (since I never heard of anyone eating seaweed) but after trying it I loved it and had a few more helpings!
Unfortunately, the last time he visited, I was already living in the Phoenix area and wasn’t back East when he and Ryoko arrived. However my son Jesse was there for the summer, visiting Grandma and Grandpa, so he met both of them. Even at the young age of 9, Jesse was fascinated with Richard and the Japanese culture. The following year or so I was visiting back home and my mom showed me photos of Richard and Ryoko and brought out all the beautiful gifts they had given her. She gave me some of Richard’s handmade paper as well as some of his paintings that had been part of some calendars. Later when I got back home, I laid several pieces of his paper down, placed his paintings on top of them, framed them and hung them up in my home.
Of the many gifts he brought over the years, my most favorite treasure is a pair of antique traditional Japanese dolls dressed in the beautiful robes and headwear sitting on top of some decorative wooden blocks. Along with the hanging pictures I also have these proudly displayed in my house.
I was fortunate to have reconnected with my uncle Richard about a year ago through email. I wrote to him, talking about his artwork and what he’d been doing with his craft and I sent photos of the artwork I made with his paper and paintings. I also told him I believed I got my artistic ability from both him and my father (who is quite the talented artist himself) and how I did some watercolor paintings for my in-laws, which they hung up in their home. He emailed me back talking about what they have been working on and he shared how he also enjoyed working with watercolor pencils too (how they were an easy medium to use while traveling) and he sent me pictures of him and Ryoko and their fat cat Toby. When I showed my mom his email to me, she joked about being jealous because Richard never wrote that much to her in any emails, lol!!
After reading about Richard’s life in Japan, I got the impression that he was a man who was unafraid to take chances and lived life the way HE wanted to live it. We should all be so lucky, to have such a rich and wonderful life as he did!
It’s apparent that Richard was surrounded with a beautiful loving wife, amazing friends, and a loving family that will greatly miss him.
If Japan only knew that there was a man from the other side of the world, who on the surface seemed so different, yet he loved a country, its people, their traditions and long history so much so, that it was truly a part of his spirit.