One of my favourite things.....

is finding something I had tucked away in a drawer, knowing I would be glad to see it again one day.  Recently I found a Christmas note my Aunt Dot sent for Christmas 2007.  Aunt Dot was two years older than my Mother, the second and third children respectively in a family of four girls.  Her note reads:

         "I had a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Memory early this year.
          They told me they are taking back my memories.
          I was so shaken, I didn't ask any questions.

          I know they have been taking my memories, as now
          I can remember very little of the past.  Isn't that sad?

          I am so happy that you were a part of my good years."

My Aunt died in 2009.  She was a very unusual woman.  She really liked the company of men, including 3 husbands (or 4?)  She divorced the first one, took some courses at the local collage, worked for years as a Medical Secretary, and raised her 5 children on her own.  She had the happy knack of speaking to children as if they were older than their years; she was the Aunt who organised picnics, or day trips to the lake or swimming pool.  She kept a scrapbook of all of my concerts, plays, ski meets, and County Fair Queen engagements, and gave it to me when I graduated High School.

Dot's house was full of colour.  She would whizz through her house with paint and brush every couple of years, and change everything.  Beautiful, and just right for her.  We certainly could never guess what she would say about anything - but that meant it was exciting to be with her.  She also, along with my sister-in-law, cared for my Mother through several years of Cancer treatments.

She did make my early teenage years a bit painful by moaning about her inability to gain weight, and reported that her doctor had directed her to drink at least one milkshake a day.  I was delighted when she began to gain weight years later during her "change".  I didn't know what that was, but I was glad she had caught it!

When I was in my 30s, my sister Becky and I were both home for a visit.  Aunt Dot surprised us with tickets to the theatre, then took us out for a drink after in a pricey hotel.  A pianist was playing quietly, and one or two couples were dancing.  There was a dapper man, about my Aunt's age, who was dancing with unaccompanied women.  He came to our table and asked me to dance.  I stammered, "Me?  I can't dance."  But he insisted, and learned that I could dance, but only on his feet.  Then he asked Becky, and his toes fared much better.  After he brought he back to the table, he asked Aunt dot to dance.  She turned him down flat.  Becky and I couldn't believe it - she loved to dance.  But no, she wouldn't.  We left soon after that.  As my delightful Aunt pulled her big Cadillac out onto the road, the Dapper Dancing Man stepped off the curb.  Dot hit the accelerator.  Becky and I gasped.  Dapper Dancing Man shot backwards our of reach.  Dot snarled, "Huh, ask me third, will you?" and took us home.

Aunt Dot did loose her memories, but I've kept a lot of them safe for her.  I hope my family will do the same for me.

With love, Linda