Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Uncles/Aunts (04/17/08)
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TITLE: Sprinkles of Joy | Previous Challenge Entry
By Genia Gilbert
04/22/08 -
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She was seventeen when I was born, and my mother’s “baby” sister. Since she idolized my Mom, and since we all lived in our grandparents’ home in my early years, a special bond formed with my Aunt Vera. My Dad was overseas and a soldier in the midst of World War II, and life must have been difficult for us all. However, my earliest recollections of Vera (whom I never learned to call aunt) are of her laughter and joking and fun.
When I was almost three, my Dad came home, and Vera met and married a wonderful man, and had two beautiful little girls of her own. God blessed and added to my family three younger brothers, and for a number of years, we all lived not far apart in the same small town.
One of my great memories of that time is our experience with the early versions of home perms.
Vera was the only one with enough nerve to attempt a perm on my fine, limp, and very straight hair. We laughed for many years about a few of them that turned out rather badly (actually horrific is a better description), and were so frizzy that I had to cover my head with a scarf, bandana-style, as I went to school that week. Most of them looked okay, though, and since it literally took hours to get a perm in those days, I looked forward to it because it meant spending a whole day with Vera and her girls.
It was pretty traumatic for all of us when her husband’s job change took Vera’s family to another state and almost six hundred miles away. However, they made many visits, and our family was able to go to their home a few times. Vera and Mom spent lots of time catching up and just laughing about life in general.
When Mom was diagnosed, at age 44, with terminal cancer, we were all devastated. Vera came to be there through the hardest days and until Mom left this life. She helped us all face and get through the darkest time in our lives, and even then, she forced us to see the good things and the funny incidents and weird people, and made us smile.
In later years, Vera came for different crises in my grandparents’ lives, and also helped with an aged aunt who was very close in the family and had no children of her own. In times of sickness, hospital stays, and other serious needs, her own family “shared” her with us to come and help. She was, without even realizing it, an illustration of how “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). I still recall her great imitations of different doctors and nurses, how they walked and talked, many of whom were distant, distracted, and just barely doing their jobs. Her clowning got us through many dark days. Vera’s daughters began to say of these trips that they were “sending Mom on a mission”, They will never know how right they were!
This legacy of laughter was returned to her by these very daughters and her husband in Vera’s last years. She went into sudden and unexplained kidney failure, and had some very difficult months and days. Through all that, the girls told of all the times when they would be to the point of tears, when Vera would make a joke in some tense predicament, until she had everybody laughing.
The last time I saw her, although her face was puffy with accumulated fluid, and she was sapped of strength, she still had that smile, a joke and a laugh.
Vera was not all fun and silliness, as I had always known. She could lose her temper and make that pretty obvious. She got depressed, discouraged, and down at times. However, she refused to stay that way for very long. Her deep faith in God sustained her, and her love for her husband, daughters, grand-children, and great “grands” was fully returned and always evident. She also loved many extended family and friends. I am so grateful that her loved reached out and included me, and helped me through the years.
As a person, Vera was very special. As an aunt, she was above and beyond all expectations. Her life brought sprinkles of joy wherever she was, and the tremendous void that she left has been felt by me and by many.
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