A life ending, beginning

I lost an uncle Monday. My brother called me around 2:30 p.m. and said, "Lee died."
Just like that. A 49-year-old man. Gone. His girlfriend, Karen, later told us that at about 1:30, Lee went outside to smoke a cigarette, came back in, laid on the bed and said, "I feel dizzy, whew." And that was it. He was dead before the paramedics could get him to the hospital.
Lee, who was not overweight, had been having high blood pressure issues, had recently complained of chest pains, and had been downing a lot of Maalox for what he thought was severe heart burn. Early indications are that a heart attack killed him.
And so my mom loses her brother, my grandmother loses her son, and the rest of us lose a crazy, cool uncle.
When I was much younger, Lee told me about girls. Lee let me drive his car when I was a senior in high school and didn't kill me when I wrecked it and the mechanics told him it was totaled because I'd broken the A-frame.
Lee and I grew apart as I got older, but he always called me from time to time to check on how I was doing. The last time I saw him was in August, when our family got together to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of my maternal grandparents. The rest of my family last saw Lee on Christmas. (I was in Austin seeing my 17-month-old son, Noah)
"When you gone call your uncle," Lee used to always ask me.
Well, Lord knows I didn't call enough.
Thirty minutes after getting the call from my brother, Nancy calls me. Before I tell her the news about Lee, she tells me what Noah has been doing.
"I just thought you'd wanna know that Noah has been walking around with your picture in his hand saying, 'Daddy, Daddy"
A life ending and a life beginning. Damn, what do you do with that.