Remembrances

As the year comes to an end, I was deep in thoughts of those loved ones no longer here....I was remembering my parents who both died in 2001 around this time of year...has always made these holidays a bit bitter sweet.

My mom's oldest sister died in 1995...she seemed to have quite a struggle at the end. I happened to be back in Ohio then and was there to be with her. She was back and forth from the hospital to the rehab home and I didn't feel the care was the best in either place and it was very upsetting ...to me and to my mom. Afer she died I was cleaning out her apt. and her dresser drawers were filled with stock statements from her AT and T stock she'd received working there for forty years...she was one of their first female executives. But no one realized the fortune she had amassed and had they known her health care could have been so much better. She passed it on to her younger sister--I vowed NOT to let that happen to her younger sister--my Aunt Emily. After my mom and dad died in 2001 only my Aunt Emily was left. I promised her I would be there one way or another for her when the time came.

She took ill in 2005 and I traveled back five times during the "school year"--every holiday I could from work and then I took an extended leave when she went into the hospital. I was punished at work unjustly for the time I took to care for her. She died in June of 2005 and I have missed her so very much. I really got to know her even more that last year...I took notes and asked her many questions about the family...she would balk at my writing things down and say "Are you going to keep asking these inane questions and write this all down?" I just said yes and she's keep talking so all was good. She sat in her brown recliner and got very immersed into her stories that my writing ceased to bother her. She would get very animated with the stories and include a lot of emotions especially when she talked about her father who she was very close to. Her father died when she was about 18....her mom died when she was in her twenties. So my mom too suffered losing them both at a young age as my mom was only four years older than my Aunt Emily.

I could ramble on and on...but the jist is that I have a photo of my Aunt Emily sitting in a rocker...not that she did , but it is to resemble the brown chair she always sat in. And the red bowl in my blip was her sugar bowl. It was always out on the table and I remembered it well so I kept it after cleaning out her apt. Not valuable monetarily...but memory wise it means the world to me and I keep her there in the rocker to talk to her every now and then. She was a "hoot" as they say:) Fond memories and I miss her so much. So as the old year goes out, I remember those from the past and look forward with hope to the future. May you all have some good times and memory building in 2014.

Monday