Remembering Aunt Leona

Most of you reading this know by now that we lost our Aunt Leona last week. Many of you may have aunts or uncles that you are particularly close to, but this lady was a very big and very special part of my life. If you were blessed enough to be raised in a traditional household, you had parents that were there for every important day and event in your life. You kinda expect that -- may even take it for granted. Since Aunt Leona never married and had a family of her own (she always said she wasn't an old maid -- she was an unclaimed treasure), we didn't have to share her time and affection with anyone else. So she, too, was there for every big and little part of my life.

She was there, of course, when I was born. And she had funny stories that she told and retold about when she babysat my older sister and me when my younger brother was born. Most of the stories cast a light on me as being the instigator of some sort of mischief...but I guess all was forgiven because she laughed every time she told the stories.

As I said, she was always there. And not just there...but involved and enjoying. I can clearly remember her being at my confirmation, attending graduations, and my wedding. Even after we moved to Georgia, she visited often and so she was here for Jodi and Jeremy's wedding as well as the birth of our first grandchild.

She always liked to stay busy, travel, visit, see new places, etc. In July of 2001, she and mom were coming for a visit and I planned a trip for us to take them to the Georgia coast. So they would know what to expect and how to pack, I sent them not just the information on where we were going (Savannah, Jekyll Island, St. Simons, etc.) but a complete itinerary. I sent it in the form of a letter from the "Happy Times Travel Agency" and made it all sound very grand. She got such a kick out of that and talked about it many times over the years. She'd say how cute that letter was and what a great time we had on the trip.

She enjoyed everything and loved to laugh. Here she is just days before her 89th birthday, sporting a tee shirt that she got for Christmas that says, "Born in America -- a long, long time ago." She also enjoyed gambling -- and was a winner. She would send people scratch-off lottery tickets in their birthday cards. She would give each of us a ticket on Christmas morning. But she was the only one who won anything. She also liked her whiskey and water...at 5:00p.m. on the dot. She said she liked visiting here from Illinois because 5:00 came an hour earlier down here.

We will especially miss her this Christmas because she's been coming down here to spend the holidays with us for the past several years. Just last year -- at the age of nearly 95 (her birthday was New Year's Eve) her driver dropped her off at the airport and then she found out her flight was being cancelled due to bad weather. She got herself to a nearby motel, called me and said, "I'll see you tomorrow." Then she had a nice dinner and a good night's rest and got herself back to the airport on time very early the next morning and caught her flight. She would usually come a few days before Christmas and go back some time after the first of the year, so we've celebrated her birthday with her many times. Here she is in 2006. We went to a New Year's Eve party at Jodi and Jeremy's and Savannah thought the birthday girl should wear her tiara.

She celebrated her 80th birthday in the hospital having by-pass surgery. My sister had planned to spend several days with her while she was in the hospital, and she took a lot of reading material because she knew that afterwards she would only be able to visit with her for a few minutes every couple of hours. But by the second day, the nurses told her to just go on in. Leona was sitting in the chair, chatting and entertaining everyone who went in. And for the next 16 years she drove herself to the rehab center at the hospital several days a week. She viewed it not only as her own fitness club, but a social gathering, too, and she knew everybody who went there. That is, until this past August. At about that time her eyesight was getting bad and she had to give up driving. She moved from her apartment into an independent living facility in her home town of Streator. She was also getting a little unsteady on her legs, so she gave up golf at that time, too. The local paper did an article about her and it was on the front page. When I called to tell her I had seen it and several friends had sent me the clipping, she said, "I always thought you had to murder somebody to get your picture on the front page of the paper!"

Even though she may have been "unclaimed" by one special person...she was loved, appreciated, and enjoyed by more people than any other person I've ever known. I've been very blessed to have her in my life for so long.