I will miss you AC!

I haven't blogged in a while. I haven't felt like it. In the past month I  have lost 2 great aunts and a 3rd has brain cancer.  I sometimes just get so sad.


AC (short for aunty Cathy) is the aunt I grew up with. She would have been 91 in July.  She was my grandma's sister and those 2 were always together. Every Thursday they went shopping together. They could finish each other's sentences. They could drive each other nuts. But they were always there for each other.

Every Christmas eve we went to my aunt's house for pigs tails, sang songs around the piano and even roasted chestnuts on the fire one year. She wore bells around her ankle for Christmas so she "jingled" when she walked!   I turned to both her and my grandma when I couldn't talk to my parents.My grandma and my aunt took me on vacations in the summer.  It was my aunt who took me on vacation to Vancouver when I was 16. Every holiday and birthday and anniversary was celebrated at my grandma's house with my aunt. Some of my happiest memories are hanging out with my grandma and my aunt. She made a waldorf salad that my brother loved. Her favorite drink was an "old-fashioned". We used to tease her about having 1 drink, getting tipsy and flirting with the waiter.  My grandma and aunt would sometimes break into song at the dinner table. We used to argue about the word "lady". I didn't like it. She did.  She would always say  that it was pronounced "ToronTo" not "Torono". She hated it when people didn't properly enunciate words.

I wish I could have seen her more often but living on the other side of the world  it just wasn't possible. This is the down side to living here. 

Here are some pictures I scanned in.

This first one is of my grandmother and aunt helping me skip rope.

This one is of both of  us on one of our summer trips in the 70's.

This one is of all the women in my  immediate family. AC is in front sitting down. My sister is to the right of her (in the purple dress). My grandmother is between my sister and I (I'm wearing black and have glasses) and my mother is next to me. This was taken the day before my sister and I moved to Japan almost 13 years ago. My sister and I were living in Vancouver and my mom, aunt and grandmother flew out to see us before we left. I love this picture and have had it on display since moving here. It is hard for me to look at since my grandmother and now my aunt are gone but it is still one of my favorite pictures.