Monday, November 12, 2012

Aunt Annie

No, this post is not about  me. It's about my great-aunt Annie. Her name is actually Sylvia, but everyone calls her Annie.

She lives next door to my grandparents. My dad grew up living at her house. She has a beautiful garden, she is an amazing cook, and she has been a nurse for most of her life. She started out in the Army, and then worked in family practice til she retired.

She doesn't have her own biological kids, but has been integral in the raising of every kid on my dad's side of the family.

3 of her brothers and sisters still eat lunch at her house every day. I'm 95% sure she's kept most of them alive through health care and feeding throughout the years. :)

She's gentle and wise and caring. When I was so sick in the hospital in OKC a few years ago, she and my other aunt Myra came to stay with me a week so my parents could go back to Texas for a while. While they were there, my doctor pulled me off all my pain medications and I went through horrible withdrawals for 48 hours. The only thing that made me feel better is when Annie rubbed my back. She said, "when I was a nurse in the army, this was our main treatment for soldiers when we didn't have medicine available." Such a blessing.

The older I get, the more I see myself in her. And that's a great thing.

With her brothers and sisters- Annie is third from the left