Family and Friends

My aunt’s memorial service was yesterday and it was a beautiful service and a beautiful tribute to a wonderful lady who has been a great partner to my uncle for many years. They did so much together and enjoyed all their time together. He is going to have a tough time adjusting to life without her but I suppose that happens to people all the time . . it’s just hard to watch when it’s someone you love.

There was a lot I learned about my aunt in the last few months. One interesting thing was that started her life in a small cajun town in southwest Louisiana and when she started first grade, she could not speak English because her parents only spoke cajun French and that was all she knew. Her teacher, the principal and the other students helped her learn English. In her adult years, she had a daughter with special needs and my aunt was a pioneer in raising awareness, as well as establishing homes and facilities to help special needs children and adults.

Chad commented on the way back to the hotel that he wished he had gotten to know her better. There was so much history she could have shared, so much about the cajun way of life we could have learned from her.

It’s sad that it takes funerals to get to see family. I saw second cousins who came from north Louisiana that I haven’t seen in probably 30 years. I saw a teacher who was teaching in elementary school when I was there. I saw the daughter of the lady, who is now deceased, who kept my sister and me before we started to school. I saw my mom and uncle’s aunt who I hadn’t seen in at least 20 years.

One of the nicest things . . my friend, Eileen who I had gone and spent one night with a couple of weeks ago . . she didn’t know my aunt or uncle but she came to the funeral to be with me. I thought that was so sweet and when I saw her, I wanted to cry I was so touched that she did that.

It’s been a rough few weeks . . 8 or months actually since my aunt was diagnosed, for my uncle, my aunt’s daughter and their very close friends. The next phase is learning to live life without her. It will be tough for them but, again . . it’s something people face everyday but until it’s someone you love, it looks a whole lot different.

I left home about three weeks ago. My mission was to help my uncle and then go see Chad, Nicole and Addie. I’ve done what I came here to do so it’s about time for me to head back to central Texas.