56 years ago, a man was born into this world.

56 years later, he was found on the first floor of his house unresponsive because of smoke inhalation.

Family, friends, and the community was hurt to see and hear this on the news station.

This man  Jam A.Crawford was known for being the hero in the community and passing out newspapers on the corner of Eastern and Franklin EVERY Sunday evening. For 56 years, everyone adored this person

But in 2014, I met  Jam A. Crawford at a wonderful woman’s house.

I heard he was my uncle.

But a year later, in 2015, on Christmas day, I saw Uncle Jam at this lady house again, and it was so weird we both were wearing mix match socks.

Well the lady said “Jam… Now why are you wearing mix match socks?”

It was hilarious, because, Uncle Jam saw my mix match socks a few minutes later and said “Mom, look, mix match socks run in the family, I ain’t the only one now.”

It was a great day.

I told my sister I would buy makeup for Christmas, and Uncle Jam told me,

“You know what, you don’t need makeup, you are young lady and you’re amazing just the way you are.”

But, when Uncle Jam left that night with his wife, I had no idea that him saying “goodbye” that night would actually mean goodbye forever.

I hadn’t talked to Uncle Jam for a year now. 2016 passed and 2017 comes.

The end of January gets here and I walk through the door of my apartment to my mom saying “Erica, Uncle Jam passed away.”.

I was sitting on the couch wondering if it could be true or not.

I had asked how did this happen and the answer was “In a house fire, it was on the news.”.

I searched up on the internet to find it to be true but I still could not believe it.

I couldn’t cry until the times after his funeral.

I would cry days and nights and even at school.

But I know that Uncle Jam would be happy to see me writing this poem about him.

ALL people know that he have lived a great 56 years young.