This is for you Aunt Ollie

My aunt, who is also my Godmother is in a hospice right now clinging to life. I am about 1100 miles away or I would try and go.

My mom grew up in Colorado, in a little tiny town where everyone knew each other and they all spoke Spanish. My godmother was about 10 years older than her sister, my mother. Maria (my aunt Ollie - I still don't understand why we call her that and everyone else calls her Maria!) had 9 children of her own and lived on the side of a mountain. She and my Uncle owned a laundromat in the Springs. They worked very hard all of their lives. My uncle passed away at least 20 years ago of cancer. My aunt stayed in her same little house on the mountain, never remarried, and gradually all of her kids moved away but all stayed in touch one way or another.

Life in a house with 9 children was very different than my house where I grew up with only two brothers. We didn't have to fight for food, bathrooms or attention. My cousins fought and scrapped and my brother's and I spent a lot of time there with our eyes as wide as dinner plates. They were always way "street" smarter than my brothers and I. I know they thought of us as spoiled and soft and when I look back now, I acknowledge that compared to them, we were. But, my Aunt Ollie always treated us special. We were the children of her only and cherished baby sister. The sister that made it out of that small town. The sister who married well and was beautiful.

My Aunt always tried to give me something special when I visited. I was her Goddaughter and she took that vow seriously. We lived 600 miles away so visits were few. When I was in about 9th grade she gave me a pair of earrings. They weren't something she went out and purchased. I knew she had just gone into her bedroom and pulled them out of her own jewelry box to give them to me. They are simple studs in an antiqued silver setting. The stone is sometimes pink, sometimes purple and sometimes a periwinkle blue. I have no idea what they are but I still wear them at least 3 or 4 times a week now. I still receive lots of compliments and people ask me what they are made of. They are one of the most precious things I own. I think its because they weren't brand new. They were valuable to my aunt and she wanted to give me something of value.

Well, you did, Aunt Ollie. You taught me that when you love someone a gift from the heart is worth more than all the gold in the world.

I know when I called you just now you were groggy and the end is near but you still asked about me and how I was. I told you I loved you and I felt better. When you said I'll see you soon all I could think of was heaven and how the angels are tickled to receive you. Your unwavering faith is a testimony to all of us. Godspeed.