What's up with Whatsit

About Sylvia

My aunt Sylvia died today.

She was really my stepfather's sister-in-law. Out of that whole clan, she was the sweetest - one of those sweet to the bone ladies. A godly lady too - a truly Christian person, not just somebody putting on.

She got a brain tumor a while back. She went to one of the Cancer Centers of America for a time, and they helped her a lot. She held her own for a season.

I keep remembering all the times she was kind to me as a teenager when it seemed like nobody else in the world cared. To most of that family I was just "Buddy's step-daughter." Sylvia really saw me as a person, even in my worst awkward adolescence.

One time, when I was in college, she and her husband spent the night with my family - they lived in Vicksburg, about an hour away. She had forgotten her Bible, so she borrowed mine. She told me the next day that she enjoyed reading all my little notes in the margins. It made me feel good that somebody would even pay attention to a detail like that, much less comment on it in a positive way.

She passed this morning at 10 minutes until 8:00. It's a sad thing to the ones who are left. I have tears in my eyes now, as I type this.

The good thing is I know she isn't suffering any more.

Rest in peace, Sylvia. Thank you for the gift of you.