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. Boo-Hoo! "The Ide's of July" took Most WONDERFUL youngest daughter back to Washington, D.C. to get ready for University again in August. Pretty sure I got in enough hugging & new pictures to last until Christmas time. I know Erma Bombeck used to write in a crazy busy house, while cooking dinner in the kitchen and holding the paper in one hand and doing spaghetti with the other. My brain goes blank when it's on a countdown to the Most WONDERFUL daughters departure to fly back. The thoughts are there but the brain just doesn't connect with the typing fingers.
You know you go along and all your people are named in your mind, as you live and grow you know them as Grandma this, Grandpa that, Uncle so & so, Aunt zu zu, cousin blankety blank and whoever address's anyone by first saying, "Hi Cousin Zelda". We never say that to their face. Only when we're speaking about them with someone else. Personally, I like saying "Hi Cuz", but that's just me.
When my Mother was a toddler, she couldn't say her name, but she could almost pronounce "shisher", for sister.
That stuck and everyone forever called her 'Sis'. Her own parents & siblings always called her, Sis. All my cousins called her, Aunt Sis.
Good thing everybody always called me Katie, tho my given name is Kay. Having 2 Kay's in one house would get confusing. As I'm sure a lot of families experience when they have the same thing, with same names in one house.
Couple of years ago I was finding some information to give my Aunt Rose. She lives a good distance away and we weren't able to get our families together much thru the years. I was talking to the guy and he commented how odd it was to hear me say 'Aunt Rose'. Me someone he never met or knew. A complete stranger using a family salutation. You could get possessive.
You could almost feel like,
"Hey, who does this person think they are? This is MY Aunt. Only I can call her Aunt. You can't!"
I heard the most wonderful expression a little while ago. My dearest Grandma Alma was called Auntie Alma. I have NEVER heard her called Aunt before. Of course she was an Aunt to a LOT of people, but I have not visited with those cousins before and it took me by surprise. I wanted to hear her say it over and over it sounded so amazing to me.
One of the things I knew a long time ago, is that one of the saddest parts of someone dying, is that their name isn't spoken much anymore. People skirt around saying it so people don't what? Take on and start crying or something, trying to be kind. I think, that thinking is really a cruelty. When someone is gone, that is when you should be saying their name the most. Talking about them, reliving memories of them.
When my cousin said "Auntie Alma", I had a flash of actually seeing her like it was today, not 36 years ago & that felt great. For the time of a brief phone conversation and now a little later, it felt great.
Happy Trails, Katiebird
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