Aunt Anne

This is a difficult post for me to write. It is about my Aunt Anne. She passed away Friday. She was just told in about Mid-August that she had a matter of weeks to live. She took it remarkably well - laughing and joking about it as the days passed. The last weekend in August, Josh and I drove with my mother and father to Denton to drop my mother off to stay with Aunt Anne, who is her sister. Then, the next weekend (Labor Day Weekend) Lee and the kids and I made the trip again. Aunt Anne just wanted to see everybody and tell them how much she loves them and remember old times. She told us up front that she did not want this to be a sad time - but a happy one with her family around her. We all had a wonderful weekend just hanging out and reminiscing.

Aunt Anne was just 12 years older than me. When I was very young and we went to visit my grandparents in Arkansas, Aunt Anne and her sister, Aunt Kay, were teenagers. They had a 1967 Mustang which they would take me for “cruises” in, like small-town teenagers tend to do. They always bought me a cherry coke so I was quite happy!!

Later, when Aunt Anne got divorced, she and my cousins, Jennifer and Jerry, moved here in town. She was then a single mother. I would often get to spend the night with them and it was always fun because Aunt Anne was just plain fun to be with. She always made me feel special because I was older. My cousin, Jennifer, used to ask "why does Dana get to do that and I don't?" Aunt Anne would simply reply "Because she's bigger, that's why." I loved it! We used to go to the drive-in quite often, go shopping or just hang out at her apartment. I once won tickets to a midnight showing of the movie “Car Wash” when it first came out. Aunt Anne, of course, was the one I chose to go with me!! (of course I guess I really went with her since she was the one who had to drive!!)

When I graduated from high school, Aunt Anne got me my first job at Levi's. It was so interesting to get to meet the people I had heard her talk about for so long. She was such a blast.

Joel shares Aunt Anne’s birthday because, since I had already had 2 c-sections already, it was just a given that he would also be a c-section baby. My doctor gave me 3 different dates to choose from, one of which was June 21, Aunt Anne’s birthday. Of course I chose that date for Joel to be born even though it was the latest of the 3 dates. Aunt Anne called Joel “my man”.

Several years ago, when my grandmother was very ill, Aunt Anne moved back here from the Dallas area to take care of her. She and her son Andy lived in a teeny retirement apartment with Granny for a few years. It was very cramped and stressful but she toughed it out until the end. She later moved back to the Dallas area to be near my cousin Jennifer.

Now I need to talk about Jennifer. She was a pretty rebellious pre-teen and teenager but has become a wonderful woman. She took Aunt Anne into her home so that she would be comfortable and surrounded by family. She is also taking Andy in and is treating him like her own son and driving him quite a way to his old high school every day. I am impressed with the compassion and caring and strength she has shown.

Then there is my other cousin, Stephanie. She is the daughter of my mother's other sister, Kay, who passed away late last summer. She is a nurse and travelled to Denton from the Houston area every weekend to help out. Another incredible woman!!

Both Jennifer and Stephanie are quite a few years younger than me so I have always thought of them as kids - but they have proven that they are wonderful, caring women throughout all of this.

Then, last but certainly not least, there is my mother. She went to stay with my Aunt Anne for several months about 2 years ago when she had her first bout with cancer. She was basically Aunt Anne's caregiver for a couple of months until she could get along on her own. Now, along with Jennifer and Stephanie, she did it again. She is an incredibly strong woman herself and I love her very much. She is the person everybody asks to speak at funerals because, for one thing, she can actually do it without breaking down and crying, and the other, most important thing, she is a very good speaker and can come up with great things to say about anybody. The first time I remember her doing so was at my Uncle Mike’s funeral. He was killed in a car wreck a few months before Lee and I got married. I couldn’t believe she could actually get up there and speak like she did but she did and it was beautiful.

Anyway, I feel blessed and proud to have such a great family because, in the end, it is family that are the most important people in your life.

I only hope that if I was put in the same situation as Jennifer, Stephanie, and my mother, that I would be half as great as they are!! Here are some pictures of Aunt Anne: