family

I took my elderly aunt to the dr today because she's been recuperating so slowly from a bad flu a couple of weeks ago. The good news is that she's a little dehydrated and needs more fluids and time to get better.

On our way home, I drove through the cemetary to show her my mother's (her sister's) headstone complete with the recent date of death (June 17, '07) newly inscribed. She cried and we talked of my dad's death 17 years ago on Christmas Eve day and her husband's death in Nov, 3 years ago.

My mother and aunt were as close as any two sisters I've ever known. From the time my mother was born, Aunt Wanda took care of her little sister. As young teens, they double dated and as newly marrieds, often shared apartments. Through the years they went into business together and shared homes often. So, when Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer 4 years ago, Aunt Wanda stepped in to fulfill her "share" of care for Mom. We worked closely together day and night, my favorite aunt and I. There's no other family member I am closer with, not even my sisters or brother.

Seeing my aunt ill and weak is disconcerting for me. This strong woman who has taken care of many, many foster children, taken various family members into her home when necessary and been an emotional and physical support to so many people is now elderly (79 years old) and fragile. It scares me, especially so soon after my mother's death. How I love Aunt Wanda!

I made her and Aunt Margaret some homemade vegetable beef soup yesterday for their supper and today they both called me their "angel who can cook." I laughed because I know ALL my shortcomings and told them my halo was crooked and dusty. Truth is, I have no halo and I'm certainly no angel. I'm just a very grateful woman who loves the Lord Jesus and also loves her family.

I never really knew how much family could mean to a person. Oh, I know a mother's love for her children and a wife's love for her husband and how deep it runs, but my love for extended family goes just as deep and is equally as compelling. I cherish my husband, my daughters and their husbands and my grandchildren, and I hold tightly to my dear aunts and hope they will be around for a long time yet.

Oh, the Lord is so good to me!

Suzanne