Uncle Galen Still Young At 99

The brother of my father's mother's father turned 99 earlier this month. Great Uncle Galen Kill has always had my admiration.

• Partly for his frugalness - though quite well off he lives in what today would be called a shack and when alive, his wife and he would dig through the trash for everything from clothes to empty plastic milk jugs to carry water in.
• Partly for his intelligence - he would go around finding everything from semi precious rocks to highly precious artifacts like a pair of woven slippers worn by the Indians of Arizona many hundreds of years ago. Everything in his garage belongs in a museum and he knows everything about what he has.
• Partly for his toughness - When he had a hernia I heard stories about how his intestine would rupture through the hole in his abdomen in the size of about an orange. He would lay down and push it back in his stomach then go back to work. This when he was around 90 years young.

For his 99th birthday instead of sitting in the nursing home and gumming dry cake like most 99 year old people do, my great uncle Galen decided so ride in a hot air balloon. It made the local news on Phoenix News 12.

The story is here where you can watch the video clip of it also.

He says he wants to sky dive next! I hope I'm still that active and adventurous at 59, much less 99.