Only three remain

This morning my grandmother called me, and I knew something was wrong from the tone of her voice.  Her sister Margie passed away last night.  I realize how strange it may seem to some people that I am so saddened by the death of my great aunt.  How many people really know their great aunts?  But I count myself as lucky that I had the opportunity to know all of my grandmother's sisters during my life.

My grandmother is one of 12 children, and there were 6 girls: Ethel, Lola, Mabel, Augusta (my grandma), Margie, and Polly.  There was only about a year between the births of Mabel and my grandma, and then again between Grandma and Margie, and they were very close.  The three of them and Ethel stayed in the Charlottesville area, while Lola took Polly to upstate New York after their mother died.  I have memories of all them.

Ethel babysat me before I started Kindergarten.  I still remember running around her house, playing with the fake fruit, watching Bob Ross on tv, and walking over to the city park that was right next door to play.  She was like a third grandmother to me.

Lola may have lived in upstate New York, but I remember her visiting my grandmother all the time.  She would come down and stay for a week or two.  My most vivid memory of her is when I was in elementary school.  My grandmother found a tick on my head, and Lola thought the best way to get rid of it would be to burn it off.  I still have a small bump on the right side of my head that may or may not be scarring :)  She also made me and my cousin beautiful quilts when we were little.  I was always amazed at how well she could sew. 

Mabel went into a nursing home when she was relatively young, maybe in her 60s.  I don't remember what her illness was.  I do remember that my grandmother went to visit her all the time, and took me with her sometimes.  Mabel's experiences in that nursing home were the reason Grandma told me that if she ever needed to be put in one, I should take her out back and shoot her. 

Margie and my grandmother were really close, and would talk to each other on the phone all the time.  Margie used come to my grandmother's house to visit a lot when I was younger.  Margie came to my bridal shower.  The picture below is of Grandma and Margie, and Grandma is holding my nephew Alex.  Polly was there, too, and the three of them won the contest to make a wedding dress out of toilet paper.  I remember the three of them cracking me up as they were using my grandmother as the dress model.  I also have a picture of Margie "wrapping" Grandma, but all you see is the back of Margie's head.

Polly is the only girl besides my grandmother that is still alive.  She was the youngest girl and the baby of the family.  I remember going up to New York to visit Polly and all of her kids and grandkids when I was younger.  Polly and her husband Donald moved back to Charlottesville for a while, I believe when I was in high school, and lived in a house on the same property as my grandmother.  I would see her all the time.  She was a nanny for a UVA professor, and for my college graduation that professor got seats for her and Grandma at the stage at Old Cabell, where they could see everything (even me!).  She moved back to New York a few years ago, and due to heart problems she's not allowed to travel back down here.

I am so blessed to have had so many experiences with my great aunts.  How many people can say that they hung out so much with their grandmother's sisters?  Those women would fight and get mad at each other, but they loved each other and were always there for each other.  It makes me so sad to think that there are only three children left out of twelve (my great uncle Maurice is the only boy left).  But at the same time, look at the extended family that they have created.  I am so lucky to have had them all in my life.