Reflections

Early Wednesday morning I received a call from my youngest brother that my Aunt Maxine(we call her Mappy!) had passed away at the age of 87.

I taught my classes, ran many errands and focused on figuring out a way to get home for the funeral.

Later, that night I talked to my oldest little brother, Max, and we reflected on her and her husband's life (he passed away last Nov) and the nonsense of the years we had together.

What's funny is, this was our great aunt. My grandma's sister on my dad's side. She was such a stinker!! She was the first one to cut up with you-she usually brought it on actually!! We road thousands of miles across country with her, her husband, other great aunts and my grandma (once my great grandma was along at the age of 91). There were no seat belt laws at the time so my brother and I would sit on this big round port-a-potty thing in between the front seats of her conversion van.

They had a cabin at the lake that we went to all summer. I remember us loading on to the boat with Granny (the 91 year old great grandma) bungie corded in her wheelchair behind Mappy's seat (that's an Okie redneck family for you!). She was all secured so that when we said "Gun it!" Map really would and all us kids thought that was so cool.

I could go on and on.

Then I'm up at 4:00 in the morning on Friday. Haven't been asleep since 1:00 a.m. I'm thinking about one thing after another in prep for our trip home. The things I forgot to do, like make a deposit at the bank. Oh, the money that cost over the years!!!

Then I switched to thoughts of Paige's acheivement day at school Thursday. A celebration of her year at school. Oh, how far she has come since the crying and separation anxiety we were facing in the fall. She now is crying because she has to leave her teachers for the summer.

Those of you that know Paige well know that she has a lot of the same characteristics I described about my wonderful great-aunt. Paige will be the first to make you laugh in any situation. She is so much fun and I am so blessed to be her mom.

I am thankful that my kids got the chance to know my aunt. She was a great lady and I am blessed to have spent 35 super years with her.