Auntie's Charm

This visit with Auntie proved that Teacher's no-show was actually a gift. (Missed this? See the post Deserted in Gotham City, IL.)

Grandma got to hang out with her sister, and we got to stay at Auntie's house instead of a hotel, which always makes for a better visit. Auntie collects apples and also has a thing for cats and miniatures. (She's the neighborhood Cat Lady you remember from childhood.) Because she's in a wheelchair, the entire house is situated at eye-level with my kids. If only we'd hung a "please do not touch" sign on her front door!

My two cousins popped in for a couple of visits, too, which was really wonderful. We cleared up a lot of details with my childhood memories which I sincerely appreciated. You know, I hadn't seen this part of my family in more than 20 years!

So, Auntie is a bit eccentric and has always been a bit of a legend in our house since the kids learned of our car wreck (see Gerald Champion Hospital post in New Mexico). Even Tomcat laments that he missed this opportunity to finally meet her. She's been through an awful lot in her life and can tell a good story to prove it. I've been intrigued with her and her ideas my entire life. There's this great quote on her fridge: "I'm usually not upset for the reason I think." And another one that I had to read a few times: "God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it's me."

Peanut was going to do a post here, but all she wanted to talk about were Auntie's cats and miniatures. She described each one in detail "Milkshake is lovely and slim...Callie is a bit shy..." and I decided to pass for now.

She got to go on an outing with Grandma and Auntie to a few of her crazy-ass friends -- I mean no offense here -- but I'm sure you'd agree her mates are fringe-of-society type people.
Fortunately, this helps with her great story telling! At one point I even asked her, "Do you have any mainstream friends?" She smirked and replied, "Not many."

Well, anyway, Peanut got to go meet a few. This involved witnessing Auntie's finesse at getting in and out of her van, driving without the use of her feet, and meeting her quadriplegic friend and others in the nursing home. When they returned from their outing, Auntie was stunned that the only thing she seemed fascinated by were the exotic birds they had in the foyer! In fact ,she was dying to show me her pictures. I just love my Peanut.

Doodle says her favorite part of Arkansas was "riding in Auntie's lap and also the ferris wheel and also the sweet tea. Yu-uh-uh-um."

Little Man has been dying to do a post for his friends to read. (He told me he thinks he's really good at it.) Auntie borrowed 2 small extra wheelchairs for the kids and Little Man quickly became an expert (this is normal in case you hadn't clued into that yet). He figured out how to break, turn, spin, etc. all on his own. At one point in the kitchen he looked at Auntie who's been in a wheelchair for 32 years and said, "Look at this. If I hold on here with this hand, and roll the other wheel with this hand, I can turn! Want me to show you how?"

Here are his own words:

"I liked too much stuff there that I couldn’t tell it all. I’m going to forget things. There was a wheelchair that I fit in and I knew how to work it. There was a medium sized oil tank, but it wasn’t a toy so we couldn’t play with it. Auntie is in a wheelchair, but I didn’t tell her she was in a car accident because that would have made her sad. It was so hot and there was a skunk in her backyard that had babies but I didn’t see them. I did make them some skunk stew out there!

I went to a covered wagon at the Fort. But it wasn’t from Little House -- it carried barrels of sugar and coffee. There weren’t any horses on it anymore. Hey, my covered wagon pencil sharpener still needs a little horse to pull it! And I got to climb on a real canon, and they were real, but they didn’t have any more canon balls on them. And I saw the place where they hang the people from ropes. The Judge did it because they were shooting people with guns. And Native Americans were shooting Native Americans, too! We got so many bug bites. They look like mosquitoes, and they act like mosquitoes, but they’re really grass bugs. They kept me awake all night because I kept on scratching them. And now I get blood all over my legs but it washes off."