My moms side of the family is stacked with eccentrics, but the sequence of events that stands out is the the Christmas that one of my Uncles burned another of my Uncles house down on Christmas Eve. Uncle A had just returned to Nebraska after getting divorced in Ohio because he couldn’t stop drinking or gambling. (Also a Granada Vet, and somehow worked for Billy Sims at one point). Uncle B goes to Ohio to take Christmas presents and to cheer Uncle A’s kids up. Uncle A decides this means Uncle B is fucking his ex-wife, gets several gallons of diesel, sets Uncle B’s house on fire after stealing a couple hundred dollars in half dollars that Uncle B collected, and leaves a note at the door saying I did this. We run into Uncle A on the way over to Christmas Dinner and my mom and I talk Uncle A into turning himself in. (Which he did with 100+ half dollars in his pockets)
In a series of epilogues to this event, Uncle A got away with violating his probation to go to a Nebraska Michigan State road game, quit gambling, had another kid? with ex wife after moving back to Ohio before keeling over from a brain hemorrhage, but by this point 5 years later he got along so well with Uncle B it was up to him to pull the plug. For the funeral his ex-wife Fedexed his ashes back to Nebraska, but they misplaced him so he didn’t make the funeral, so we just had the legion fire the salute in the Church parking lot, and went and drank lukewarm Coors Light at the farm while listening to the Husker fight song on repeat because that’s what he would of wanted