*Walks in slowly and flops on couch*
Terry and Troy both had to work yesterday so Teddy
went with me to University Christian Church for the
memorials of my Auntie Ann and Cousin Steve.
I had such a heavy heart that I could barely walk.
When we parked I saw my mom's old friend Tom McCormick
walking in. I knew I'd be seeing lots of Mom's old friends.
We sat behind Cousin Debbie and Larry and Lanny near
Elizabeth, Jorge and their son Alex and Auntie Jean.
Auntie Jean is the only sister left now. Very sad.
Ann was my mom's oldest sister and Jean was between them.
Gene Kidder did the ceremony and was so eloquent.
He and his wife Barbara were also best friends of my mom's.
Sitting in the UCC sanctuary was peaceful.
I had been born into the church in 1956 and gone there
until I was a teenager and too rebellious to go.
My aunt's service was first. She was such a fine person.
I was a little afraid of her as a child because she was
very assertive and sometimes untactful.
But as a grown up, I admired her very, very much.
When my grandmother, her mom, was too frail to
live alone, she went to live in Horizon House.
As she declined, she needed to live in the nursing center.
My aunt called me to help her move Grandma.
I drove to my aunt's huge mansion in Laurelhurst to carpool.
My Bush cousins were Steve, Debbie, Larry and Susie and my
Cushman cousins were Carolyn, Betsy and Dan.
So Auntie Ann and I jumped in her little green
station wagon and drove to downtown Seattle.
My Auntie Ann talked about her kids and grandkids.
She loved them so very, very much Mr. Blog.
Steve was off in Alaska with Bobbette raising their kids
Dillon and Deirdre and running his construction company.
Debbie was still near Greenlake with her husband Lanny raising
so many foster kids that it was hard to keep them all straight
and Larry was way off in Rhode Island being a professor of pottery
with Wendy and his kids Maya and that red-head boy that is Troy's age.
Susie, her baby, had bought a house with her husband Evan down
in Oakland and was raising her kids Luke and Whitley.
It was the only full day as an adult I spent with my Auntie Ann.
She was magnificent! Her love, loyalty and devotion to her mom
and my cousins was unrivaled by any other woman I have ever met.
Magnificent.
That is how I would describe my aunt.
When we arrived downtown to help grandma move down a few floors
I got a little distressed like I might cry but auntie stayed strong.
I admired my grandma Lois above all other people in the world.
I never heard her make a disparaging comment about anyone in my life.
Oh, if I were half the person she was!
So grandma was very frail and Ann was so tender and sweet with her mom.
They had already move grandma downstairs so after visiting with her
we went upstairs to clean out her apartment.
It was a long sad job and we loaded her little
green station wagon until it rode right against the ground.
We took everything to auntie's garage and unloaded it.
The last of grandma's treasured treasures that got whittled down
to a carload. As we unloaded everything auntie asked me if there
was anything I wanted. I told her I wouldn't mind
grandma's kitty cookie jar.
The cookie jar that had sat on the counter of her house
at 7020 18th NE since before I was born.
At the memorial yesterday, there was a slide show.
Auntie Ann and Susie were standing in Grandma's kitchen
with the biggest smiles in history.
Susie's arms were around auntie as she leaned on the counter
and and had her hands on the cookie jar.
My auntie and my cousin in my grandma's kitchen.
Laughing and smiling and you know what Mr. Blog?
I took that picture.
It was when our entire family still lived in Seattle.
Well, Steve had moved to Alaska, but the rest of us
were still around. Still around to hear grandma's pealing
laughter. To smell grandpa Hugo's vile cigars.
To hear the heirloom duck clock tick-tock
and sneak lemon drops off the mantel from
the heavy glass jar with the silver lid.
To be together.
Memories that had faded until yesterday.
So we had Auntie Ann's memorial and then
went to the lounge for lunch.
All my cousins were there and people I had known since
I was a child at the church. My mom's good friend
Shirley Towner, Jim Stockdale, Steve and Rick Leonard,
Marilyn McClain, my step-cousin Chris Helton
and more than I remember right now.
I dragged Teddy around and we introduced ourselves to
the out of town cousins that I barely know and then
went back to the sanctuary for Cousin Steve's memorial.
As the piano played some blues music
an electic guitar began the notes and a man sang
the Bob Dylan song, "Like a Rolling Stone."
That was how I remembered my much-older cousin Steve
before he married in 1968 and moved to Aniak Alaska.
As a music-loving really cool guy that I was lucky
enough to be related to.
When I was twelve and he'd visit our house
by Ravenna Park, he would bring a guitar
and play folk songs and rock songs
and I can still hear his voice singing,
"Michelle, My Bell." He had been to France during
school for a year and could sing the French part well.
I hate to say it Mr. Blog, but he sang a little flat.
But he put so much soul into his singing that it sounded
great to me and I was in total awe of him.
So my cousin Susie has some health problems
serious enough to worry my sick Mr. Blog.
She couldn't come up for the service but she made the slide shows
and sent them along with her kids Whitley and Luke.
The slide show of Steve was so awesome.
All the pictures of their house in Laurelhurst
with the four kids together.
Uncle Dick was a handsome young man and it was
awful that he passed away at fifty. But,
in the pictures he was full of life and so in love with my auntie.
They were a wonderful family and Steve was just
as energetic and tall and handsome and
kind as the day was long.
Steve came to visit summer before last and brought
Auntie Ann. Not too long before she passed away.
We had a family reunion at my house and all the Bushes
were in town and I got to meet most of their kids
and Elizabeth and Jorge brought Alex and Auntie Jean.
I just wish I had thought to have a family reunion while
mom and Lyle were still alive.
It just didn't occur to me.
I thought everyone would last a lot longer than they did!
So, back to Steve's memorial.
Gene Kidder was gracious and the music from the piano and organ
were moving and we sang many more hymns.
When it was over, cousin Larry told us about the ceramic
urns he had made for their ashes. They were
an abstract of their family home in Laurelhurst
and had their names and dates of birth and death on one side
and the other side had the names of all their siblings.
So Their nuclear family of six is now three.
But you know what Mr. Blog?
Those Bush cousins of mine are about as fine of people
that God ever did make.
You know what else?
So are their kids.
The debriefing:
So I called my Auntie Jean later on in the evening
to see what she thought about everything.
She did not get along well with her oldest sister
and I'd never heard her say much about her.
Well, I told her I admire Ann very much and she said,
"That reminds me of something. When Carolyn was two and I was
in the hospital Ann babysat her for me at her house.
Well Frank never wanted to be apart from his babies
and called her and asked her to bring home Carolyn.
Well, not only did she return his baby,
she arrived on Cougar Mountain with a
fully cooked, dressed turkey.
When I came home the next day
I was so grateful because I didn't
have to cook for a week."
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