Friday, July 3, 2009

Happy Birthday Aunt Hilda!











My Aunt Hilda will be 91 on July 5, 2009! She is going for the record!

My Aunt is my mother’s younger sister, and my sometimes mother when I was a child. No, I was not abandoned, but in times when my mother could not attend a school type function, my Aunt would often replace her.

I remember picnics and outdoor events where my Aunt and Uncle would take me that my parents didn’t attend. My mother was very sensitive about their being older parents and I needed younger influences. In today’s terms, my parents would be of normal age, but in the day, they were old!

My Aunt and Uncle used to live with my Grandparents until they had a child and they moved away. Away is a relative term, because they were two and a half blocks away.

This distance caused my Aunt to call her mother once or twice a day. If this seems excessive, I can tell you I know this because we replaced them in the house with my Grandparents, so we were always there. As well, I learned all about behavior there, so I called my mother every day of her life at least once but usually more often. I lived in many places and was hundreds or even thousands of miles away. But I learned that behavior as a child, and was taught by my Aunt.

Do I call my Aunt everyday, no! I call usually every week or two but never out of guilt. I just need to know how it’s all going. These things are important to me.

I’ve often said it’s not dying that bothers me so much, it’s just that I’d like to be guaranteed to be awakened every ten years or so and filled in on what’s happened.

My Aunt, the one who cut my mother out of the seat belt (you may remember the story), went downtown two years ago on the subway. She returned back to the parking lot (oh yes she stills drives, or as she has told me, she has trouble walking but still can drive) and fell crossing the lot. A crowd gathered as this elderly lady was lying there, bleeding profusely from her leg. They wanted to call an ambulance, but she kept refusing. She just wanted help to get to her car.

When she got to the car, she went home. She got inside and opened her bag to get at the Kentucky Fried Chicken she had brought back with her, and the lunch they would never have let her eat in an ambulance!

This is my family and it explains so much to my wife and kids who always say, “You’re just like your Aunt!” This is seldom said as a good thing, even though, down deep, they love us both!

Happy Birthday Aunt Hilda! May you have many, many more. Always remember we share the same gene pool, live forever!

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