My aunt collapsed yesterday from heat stroke and was not able to be revived. She was just fifty-four years old.
My aunt was only four when my parents were married. She cried when they wouldn't take her on their honeymoon. She was six when I was born and more of a big sister - at times a bossy big sister - than an aunt.
She helped me make some major transitions in my young life: she was at school when I started and helped me settle in; at Girls' Brigade when I was there (along with her middle older sister, my mother and my grandmother who were all leaders); at youth group when I started and would drive me around and advise me about boys (usually against them - I don't think anyone was good enough for her 'little sister'). She taught me to play the piano and it is a love we have shared to this day. I was bridesmaid at her wedding, and several years later we were both expecting at the same time (her youngest son is only five months older than my eldest).
Perhaps I'll just call her 'my big-sister aunty'.
My aunt was only four when my parents were married. She cried when they wouldn't take her on their honeymoon. She was six when I was born and more of a big sister - at times a bossy big sister - than an aunt.
She helped me make some major transitions in my young life: she was at school when I started and helped me settle in; at Girls' Brigade when I was there (along with her middle older sister, my mother and my grandmother who were all leaders); at youth group when I started and would drive me around and advise me about boys (usually against them - I don't think anyone was good enough for her 'little sister'). She taught me to play the piano and it is a love we have shared to this day. I was bridesmaid at her wedding, and several years later we were both expecting at the same time (her youngest son is only five months older than my eldest).
I didn't have to call her 'aunty' like I did my other aunties
because she was more of a big sister than an aunty. How do you define a
relationship like that? To say 'my aunty passed away' suggests a more distant
relationship than we had (and I have already lost another aunt this year and
know that such a relationship is not 'distant' at all); but to say 'my big
sister died' is less than the truth too.
Perhaps I'll just call her 'my big-sister aunty'.
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