On Hampton Avenue, just north of Tilles Park is a large apartment complex Hampton Gardens. My earliest memories of my Aunt Carol is when she shared an apartment with my Grandma Gee. I am guessing I was under 5 and I remember 2 large brown chairs without arms and Blue Chinese dragons and other assorted knick knacks that my Grandma always had. I have the Blue Chinese dragons it was the one thing I wanted from my Grandma. I think I loved Hampton Gardens is because my Aunt Carol and my Grandma were always so happy to see me. Now many, many years later my Aunt Carol greeted me with the same smile and the same warmth she has always greeted me. She has probably been happier to see me longer than anyone else in my life excluding my parents. And then she laughs, Aunt Carol laughs at all my jokes or comments, I have to say she is the second best audience I have ever had only surpassed by her mother. And when Carol laughs it is not a soft tee hee, but a large laugh and her eyes smile and get big--just as big as her laugh.
Carol got into the car and was telling me about her swimming pool -- her favorite feature of the house they had built years ago in South County in St. Francis of Assisi. The pool is on its last legs and may be put out of its misery soon after 37 years and a home for so many kids and friends and kids of friends and friends of kids. Carol welcomed them all. It really was not until my Grandma Gee's funeral that I realized through the words of my older sister how really tough my Grandma Gee had it after my Granddaddy died. But my Grandma got through it with a smile and hard work, she was always working and she laughed and smiled through it all. "Who has more fun than people?" My Aunt Carol has taken that example and lived it through her whole life. She was always working to make sure she could overcome the obstacles in her life and do the best for her children-- and then her grandchildren. We sometimes do not see family as much as we should, and my family with Aunt Carol has had just a few weddings and really only one death--Grandma Gee. So we get busy and we forget that message that we truly do belong to each other. I am very happy with my first week of breakfasts--the intentional living, but I think I should probably take my Godmother out to breakfast at least twice a year.
I told Carol today that I try to end all my conversations with former students with simple words, "I am proud of you. Do you know how proud of you I am?" Breakfast at Denny's was great, they filled up my Coke 3 times even after I said no. They were always topping off Carol's coffee and we continued to talk about new things and old things, about the Catholic Church and its frustrating rigidity, how we should learn to just treat people like people. "All people are the same, John, they are just like us." Carol shared as we thought about the problems of our world.
Tomorrow, Breakfast with my Goddaughter, Lauren, I hope I remember to always greet her with a smile and a big laugh. My aunt has not let bad breaks or imperfect people derail her happiness, she worked through it and taught her children how to do the same. It still is not easy, but even when she looks at me and I see the weight of her burden, she smiles and she laugh.
Aunt Carol, I am proud of you. Do you know how proud of you I am !!
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