
Visit Someone You Love
You may someday be very happy you did or very sad that you didn’t.
Today I’m celebrating memories of my favorite Aunt on the anniversary of her birth. Really, she was much more than my father’s only sister.
She was the one who taught me how to hold the soup spoon like a big boy and not like a baby. She was the one who insisted that I say “yes, ma’am and no ma’am.”
I still have the ceramic hot plate she helped me make in Bible School. She drove me to Nashville when my Dad was in the hospital for major surgery.
I took my first shower in her home, but I didn’t know enough to put the shower curtain inside the tub. The rug was soaked. I was embarrassed. She scooped up the rug and put it in the dryer, having not said a word.
She didn’t always make suggestions to an unruly nephew. Sometimes she told me how it was going to be, and I knew she meant it too.
During my high school stud muffin days, she told me how awful my hair looked and to get it cut. A newly washed car never left Midway Service Station without first passing her inspection. Heaven forbid the Station bathrooms were ever found to be dirty.
Someone once said that memories are made in moments, not hours or days. It’s those moments that form your character and last forever.
I’ve written about just a few moments with my Aunt that helped me become the imperfect, but certainly better person than I would have become without having her in my life.
I was on an infrequent visit back home six years ago for a family reunion. The gathering was at a church about 20 miles from her home.
She was unable to attend the reunion, so she told me to make sure I came back to see her before leaving town after the reunion.
I told her that I would.
The reunion ended. I was tired and wanted to get back home, about a two hour drive. So, I didn’t go back to see her as I promised I would.
I never saw her again. She was tired of the struggle and decided it was time to go. Just a few weeks later, she went to sleep and woke up in Heaven.
A lifetime of good memory moments topped off by one I will always regret.
I miss you Aunt Sissy.
