The Aunts Go Marching One By One

I am very blessed to have three wonderful aunts. Aunt Gerry (yellow shirt) and Aunt Nancy (blue shirt) are older than my mom by eight and six years, and Aunt Carol (striped shirt) was born two years before my dad.

Last Saturday night, I was able to have dinner with all three of them at the same time! This is pretty rare since Gerry's from Orange, CA; Nancy lives in Cincinnatti, OH; and Carol is in Broken Arrow, OK (a little closer to Tulsa).

It's neat to think that these are the people who grew up with my parents. They are the ones that tormented, laughed and played with mom and dad when they were little. I mean, I only know my parents as adults, but the aunties were there while they were growing up, learning to walk, and going to school.

In fact, it's thanks to these aunties that I'm even here today. You see, while dad was at school at MIT, he would go over to Aunt Nancy's house (mom's sister) because her husband was the minister at his church. At the same time, Mom sat next to Aunt Carol (dad's sister) at an ACC football game and started talking about their siblings in boston. Mom went up there for three weeks when my cousins Julia and Mark were born and she came home engaged to my dad! But back to the aunts...

As a kid, I always felt Aunt Gerry "understood" me--I was the only one in our family of four who wasn't the youngest. So I remember one time mom let me call her long distance (before cell phones) because she was the only one who knew what it was like to have a younger sister. She lives so close to Disneyland that you can see the Electric Light Parade fireworks from her driveway. I would always love racing out there to see the fireworks when we would visit them!

Aunt Nancy used to live in a giant house that was built in like 1910 or something like that. It had a giant staircase and a really fun back staircase that had been built for the servants (she didn't have any, but that's what it was there for). She also had a dime slot machine that Sarah and I had so much fun playing. When I was 7, I was in my cousin Julia's wedding and my job was to bring Aunt Nancy a rose. I sat next to her and, as the story goes I started crying during the ceremony. When Aunt Nancy asked why, I told her that that you were supposed to cry at weddings.

My Aunt Carol only lives about 15 minutes from our house in Tulsa. Growing up, this was great because we would get together at least once a month for family birthdays or to go swimming in her pool. When I would go to Grandma K's house, it was her formal dresses that I got to play dress up in. Then in middle school, I can remember her sewing a biblical costume for me for VBS--if I remember right, I caught my finger in the ceiling fan durnig that project. We would usually work a puzzle, play a game, cook something or do a craft together--even just two years ago when Sarah and I spent the whole Christmas holiday at their house.

These are just a few of my specific memories of these three special ladies. I'm honored to know them and lucky to be related to them. Hopefully, one day (far, far in the future Sarah, no pressure here) I'll be as good of an aunt as they are.

So what about you--what are your memories about your aunts or uncles?