I have an aunt who’s fighting hard to kick Cancer’s butt and send it home crying to its mother. She became my aunt when I married Dan 4 years ago and I instantly loved her. She just felt like my family. She is an encourager, a finder-outer, someone who wants to know everything that’s going on in your life and make you feel special – minus the sugar shock often associated with such people. Her killer sense of humor also helps.
Tonight I checked my cell phone messages while grocery shopping and there was a message from Aunt J, congratulating me on the success of my blog and telling me how proud she is that I am part of the family. She told me how much she loves me and how proud she has always been of me. To have a woman like her leave me that kind of a message brought tears to my eyes, in the grocery store. I guess she’s trying to send me home crying to my mother too.
I will never delete that message.
I have a few messages that have touched me in that way and I have saved them until a move or job-change has forced me to erase my entire inbox.
It got me thinking about all the talking, emailing and instant messaging I do every day. I send letters and thank-you notes by snail-mail as well. Words, words and more words are constantly spewing forth from the DYM.
I want to leave more messages that won’t ever be erased.
Aunt J, I love you!
Wow I never thought about that before, I want to leave those kind of messages too.
wow! sounds like she is one cool aunt.
You’re right. You’re Aunt J is a delightful individual – one of those people who stand out in a crowd. I feel that way about her sister, the DYM by marriage (I like that term so much more than mother-in-law) too. I feel really blessed by the families my children have married into and look forward to sharing precious family moments with them all through the years.
And I know what you mean about messages that will never be erased. I have cassette tapes of each of my parents telling their life stories. Dad’s been gone now about 25 years and it still comforts me to be able to hear his voice.
I also keep files of treasured letters from family and friends. Each of you kids have one of your very own. Did you know that? I keep my favorite letters and hard copies of your e-mails around to remind me of how wonderful you always are to me.
Have I told you lately that I love you?
Such a great post! I have an aunt like that. She once wrote me a thank you note for “babysitting” my uncle after he’d had a stroke. That note made me feel like a million bucks, the way she said that Uncle Eddy’s eyes always lit up when I walked into a room. I’ll never throw those few lines away–she made me feel special.
I can see that you and your friends and family do a lot of that for each other, Kathryn! It’s wonderful.
Katy http://www.fallible.com
Such a nice post to read! Your blog always makes me feel better!
that’s really awesome. make that a resolution… no more of this mullet hairdo stuff!
Nicely said about Aunt J. She is the worlds’ best. Thank you for that post. I cried too. And to “mom”, the feeling is so mutual!
I’m so sorry to hear about your aunt. I’m sorry she is sick. And think though that it was neat that she’d call and tell you how proud she was. I just loved this blog. It’s moments like these that I wish happened all the time.
What an awesome aunt!! If you ever do need to “save this message, press 9”, talk to my brilliantly cell-phonely adept dh. When his boss got a new phone, brilliant dh got his boss’s (or is it boss’) phone to save all the sports scores message his boss received when Syracuse (bosses’s’s alma mater) won the NCAA championship. Scored many points with said boss.