2021 Life Logs, Day 344: Remembering Aunt Ethel
Date: Friday, December 10, 2021
Weather: Overcast; High Temp 47, Low Temp 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Today was dreary and overcast and only became more so in the late afternoon when I got a text from a niece with a link to an obituary for my Aunt Ethel. She was my aunt by marriage to my mother’s oldest brother, but because she was like a sister to my mother, we were very close when I was young. She was beautiful and smart, an elementary teacher by trade, and had an absolutely infectious laugh. I last saw her when I arrived unannounced at her door on her 103rd birthday. And that was three years ago. At that point she was still living alone, still driving, and still young at heart. I took her on an all day road trip that day from her home in Roanoke, Virginia, to Monroe County in West Virginia, where she grew up and where she met and married my uncle who was fifteen years her senior. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, but she was still going strong. My uncle passed away in 1975 and eventually Aunt Ethel remarried and outlived a second husband by many years. She never had children, but her second husband’s family adopted her fully and made sure she was cared for in every way through the years. After she remarried, I saw her very few times over the years, but her influence on me as a young child was always with me. I had to smile when I saw the photo with the obituary. It was Aunt Ethel with her cat Bella that she loved so dearly.
That picture had to be taken in the last six years and she certainly didn’t look like a centenarian. She was one amazing woman.
