Don’t Worry About the Future for Dumb Reasons
Your current concerns will be history.
This is the story of my aunt and my own selfish self.
At the age of 21, I found myself concerned that I would have to look after my father’s sister at her old age.
The thing is, I loved her to bits. But I was young. I didn’t want the responsibility of taking care of an elderly person.
She didn’t have children of her own. She was like a third parent to my brothers and me, but especially to me. When my mother was pregnant with me, my naval officer father was away. My aunt slept with my mother and put her hand on her belly bump to feel my movements.
Even when we lived in different cities, she was with us for every occasion. Birthdays, the first day of school, end of year concert... She was there.
She was the first person in my family who went to university. I remember visiting her studio apartment which she shared with two other girls. They used cheap curtains to separate the apartment into little rooms. They could still talk without seeing each other. Sometimes I still wish I lived with my best friends in a whimsical house with fluttery walls.
When I wrote my first book at the age of 6, she took my writing to her office and typed it down with a…
