My aunt has been with me through my entire life, present, absent, always available by regular mail, and in my heart always.
Photos of hiking, being in the mountains, childhood birthday parties, Christmas with the family. One year we had to dig her car out as she tried to get downhill to our house.
As much as my mother, she and J taught me how to cook. Yes, my dad was a bigwig and had to host parties and they catered them. We kids all helped in one way or another, passing platters or cleaning up (that was me).
One of the greatest gifts she gave to me is learning to try something before asking what the ingredients are. Now, when I taste something, I know what went into it. Thank you!
There was a red checked dress in a closet that I asked her to keep for me. She used it for square dancing and it was beautiful. That dress made me think she was the greatest aunt in the world.
My aunt has loved her family, close and extended, for her life. She climbed Pike’s Peak, drove across the country in a 1966 Mustang for a job in San Francisco but came home to teach English to high school kids.
We moved before I could have her as a teacher, but she pioneered breathtaking works to encourage love of language and writing including Native American women and the Holocaust.
Happy birthday, Aunt L
ps What’s my grade?
Cooking with Dee 