Aunt Vida

Aunt Vida is my husband's aunt, his mother's sister. I've always loved Vida but haven't taken the time to help her out like my sister-in-law,Faye, has in recent years. Faye does Vida's laundry, takes her to her doctor's appointments, and brings her tupperware meals occasionally. Today we're supposed to be taking Vida to the Royal Botanical Gardens and then out for lunch but it rained last night and the ground is still wet so we'll have to see how the morning goes.

Throughout my life I've never needed much outside help because my husband was here to do the manual labor and kill the odd centipede. He also took me grocery shopping in the years I was a non driver. We begin to take these things for granted, thinking we can always get by on our own until one day when we get old and widowed. It's not as easy to do for yourself in your later years.

Aunt Vida is about 88 years old and almost as bright and alert as she was in her youth. Minor illnesses have dulled her somewhat but she's still nice to be around. She was always a homebody so running the roads doesn't set her heart on fire these days but I think she still enjoys the company of familiar family. We make her laugh and that's what it's all about.

Vida raised five children of her own and helped raise her sister's children, and vice versa. Back when both women were young they were very poor and even lived together for a while to help make ends meet. The cousins grew up as close as brothers and sisters and that's the way it remains today. And that's one of the reasons we love Vida so much.

I'm just a relative newcomer to this family, having married into it in 1957, but my husband and I lived in Vida's house for a few months when we first got married. Vida and I would many times sit over a cup of tea and talk about our lives. She was a fountain of advice without sounding as though she was lecturing me so we became good friends even though I was a teenager and she was an old woman in her late 30's...hmmm! It's true...I did consider her old at that time.

Vida has been through many upheavals in her life as one would expect. Her marriage failed, reignited, and failed again. She worked hard all her life and now lives in a little senior apartment where she whiles away her days doing jigsaw puzzles and smoking like a chimney. Shes not a sociable person with strangers so she doesn't frequent the rec hall in her building. Her one son is dead and the other children see her fairly regularly but it's Faye who mainly sees to her needs.

Until the day I die I'll always be grateful for the fates that led me into this family. They're something very special.