Frayed Feisty Threads - Book IV

Aunt Mary 7/24/2005

July 24, 2005

Aunt Mary died today. Four months and 10 days after her sister Hannah died and 1 day before her 84th birthday. I spoke to her on Tuesday. Today I found a letter she wrote to me in May. I never wrote back. But I called her a lot and I called doctors and Diane and cousins and family.

Aunt Mary was so lonely; she lost Josephine, her best friend and her roommate and her companion.

I remember Aunt Mary as a sort of different person, I remember her I guess because she always had a dog. And every time we talked, she liked to hear my dog barking. It cheered her up. I remember that she always wore shorts or pants and never a dress. She always had short hair and cooked well. And she loved to eat. What Umholtz doesn’t?

The chair she fixed for Aunt Hannah sits in my kitchen and I rocked in it all day today. I can’t believe she’s gone; it was too sudden; she was getting better, it seemed. She was coming to Valley View in September and was getting well for that.

She was a WAC, she worked for the Army and was stationed in the Philippines during World War II. She was a tough lady. And she smoked, almost all her life. Oh how we fussed at her about that! All the time, and all the family.

When she was in the hospital, one time my brother Joe kidded her about having the best picture of her. It was an official press release of her in the Army. She looked so young – she was. I teased her about wanting a pizza and offered to order one from Domino’s. We could laugh and cry on the phone. She was family; she was my Aunt; she was in New Jersey…..and it was so far, it seemed.

We told her about what we found in Valley View. She told us what it all meant, or added a story or some piece of information we didn’t know.

For some reason, I thought of that silly song we used to sing as kids, One little. two little, three little Indians, and it rolls around in my head. Three little, two little…… Now there is only one left…..Dad.

God, watch over Dad and bless this family.