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Everyone should be blessed with an aunt like my Aunt
Lillie. She was the most positive and fun loving person
I??™ve probably ever known. She was also living proof that
money and material items are not what life is all
about??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦
She was one of eleven children and had
much less than any of them, but that didn??™t bother her. She
and her husband were always ???tenant farmers??? and worked from
sunrise until after dark. They were lucky in that they
always worked for well-to-do farmers and ranchers; they
always had a decent home and plenty of beef as perks of the
job. But, when it came to cash on hand, they had very
little.
As I think back, it seems there was a
part of Lillie that was always childlike. She could turn
anything into a game, especially for the numerous nieces and
nephews!
She was a large woman with a contagious
laugh, and being plump she jiggled when she got really
tickled. Her laugh was not what you??™d call feminine. It
was an all out belly laugh usually accompanied by tears
running down her cheeks. A whole lot of laughing, jiggling
and crying went on when Lillie was around!
Of the eleven children in the family,
there were only four girls. The boys tormented Lillie
something terrible and probably because of her sense of
humor. They knew they could get away with just about
anything. And, she would try just about anything whether it
was ???for the fun of it??? or because she had been dared.
Several of the brothers were boxers, and Uncle Clare won
many, many titles. He never became a professional, although
he did knock out and win bouts with pros. Lillie often
joined in and put on the gloves herself, and not only in
bouts with her brothers. She knocked out numerous other
opponents! Uncle Clare was once quoted
as saying ???I finally knew I was tough
when I was able to whip my sister, Lillie.???
She also had an ornery side to her, and
at those times she had an impish twinkle in her eye! She
loved July 4th and was always looking for
something different to do with the powerful firecrackers you
could buy back then. One year she had just purchased a new
horse tank prior to the holiday. This was for the sole
purpose of catching rainwater, as she was determined to have
it for washing her hair. To make it convenient, the tank
sat beside the back porch. On the 4th she
decided to toss a 2-inch long M-80 firecracker in the tank
thinking water would fly like crazy and create a ???fountain???
effect. Instead, it blew the entire bottom out of her new
tank! She laughed so hard I??™m surprised she didn??™t fall off
the porch.
Before I was born, she had been married
and widowed, and she and her first husband had done a little
bootlegging. They kept their ???stash??? buried in the field,
and under loose floorboards of the barn. Someone turned
them in, but they got wind of the raid before it took
place. The day the authorities showed up her husband was in
bed sick as a dog. The search went on and on with nothing
ever recovered. The only places they didn??™t check were the
kitchen ovens, and her husband??™s sick bed. Naturally,
that??™s where the goods were. Lillie had outsmarted them
all!
There were many vacations I passed up
with my parents, so I could spend that week or ten days on
the farm with my favorite Aunt! The memories of those
visits are endless.
I recall the time she bought dozens of
donuts and allowed several of the cousins to have a ???donut-
eating contest.??? Our own mother??™s would have never allowed
such fun for fear we??™d all be sick. Also, the time she paid
my brothers $1.00 for each raw egg they could swallow from a
glass. I??™m sure that was money she really couldn??™t afford,
but it was fun for her as well as the boys. She did a lot
of that laughing and jiggling as she watched those boys make
faces and gag! There were fishing trips to the ponds and
rivers on the properties, and sometimes we fished most of
the night. Once when it was raining and I just had
to see one of the baby lambs, she actually let me wrap it in
a blanket and bring it in the house. Barn cats were a must,
so there were always plenty of kittens to play with. Of
course there were a number of accidents on the farm, like
being thrown from a horse, a very close call with a mean old
bull, etc. And, the awesome maze of tunnels we built with
bales of hay in the hayloft can never be forgotten. We
simply got lucky when it came to climbing silos and not
falling to our death, but it was thrilling at the time.
There was one slight accident that required going to the
emergency room. My cousin and I were playing mumble peg,
and our targets were the cow patties in the corral. So,
after the first throw the knife was no longer what you??™d
call sanitary. I finally missed my target and the knife
ended up buried between the bones of my foot. Needless to
say, my folks were not pleased! Then, there were the many
animal procedures that were necessary on a farm. They
weren??™t always pleasant, but they certainly were
educational.
Her cooking was beyond words, and I
don??™t think she had a written recipe for anything. All
those mouth-watering treasures simply existed in her head.
To this day I??™ve never tasted a cherry pie like hers, or
seen one as beautiful. One of those pies could have been
the picture on the front of the most expensive cookbook. I
wish someone had encouraged her to enter the State Fair
baking contest at least one time. She would have won the
Blue Ribbon ???hands down.??? Naturally she had plenty of
practice cooking, as during harvest she cooked for all the
hired hands daily, then washed mounds of dishes, pot, and
pans by hand with never a complaint. As I recall she
usually sang while she cleaned up the kitchen. The
compliments on her food and the amounts eaten were all it
took to make her day.
Lillie fussed over her vegetable garden
and that was something else that just came ???natural??? to
her. I recall going with her on the daily ritual of
searching out and removing those dreaded tomato worms. When
it came to those nasty worms, she was on a mission! Away
we??™d go with a mason jar to place them in, as they were not
about to destroy her prized tomatoes. And, those tomatoes
truly were to die for! I would take a saltshaker to the
garden, sit in the dirt, and eat hot tomatoes just plucked
from the vine. No room temperature, clean tomato can
compare to that taste of a ???hot, dusty, Kansas tomato.??? The
acidic flavor would cause your taste buds to explode, as
juice ran down to your elbows.
Lillie played the piano, harmonica, and
guitar by ear as well as singing with perfect pitch. I
remember many times I found her singing and dancing in her
kitchen all by herself for no particular reason. She simply
was happy and entertaining herself in her own private dance
hall! She loved gospel music, country music, and even got
into rock and roll. She loved it all. The first song I
remember learning (other than children??™s songs) was The
Tennessee Waltz. That was on one of my extended visits, and
she was hooked on that one for sure. She bought me my very
first 45-rpm ??“ Honeycomb! The song had just come out, and
I??™m sure it was another one she had taken a fancy to. The
woman simply loved her life, and most people probably never
understood why.
She and her husband had one son that
had to have been a disappointment to them, although they
never said as much. After losing her husband and as Lillie
aged, the son moved her clear across the country and far
from other family members. Often they didn??™t have phones,
which made it impossible to always know how she was doing.
We did finally hear that the son had simply ???dropped??? her
off at a nursing home, exactly like someone drops off a pet
at the pound. I can??™t comprehend that happening to a pet,
let alone to a person, and especially to my Aunt Lillie!
The entire family was enraged. The only information we
could get was to call the nursing home. By then she was
suffering from dementia so we only spoke with nurses. I was
infuriated to find out this neglectful son seldom visited.
I??™m sure the staff had ???his number??? in short order, as
Lillie??™s nieces and nephews were calling long-distance to
see if she needed any personal items, money, and what her
condition was. I hope she knew the devotion and love her
nieces and nephews had for her.
She didn??™t deserve to pass away alone,
no one does, but that??™s how it happened. Family members
weren??™t even notified right away, there was no proper
funeral, but we all assumed she surely had been buried next
to her husband. This cemetery was on the other side of the
U.S. so no one could check it out immediately. And,
naturally her son didn??™t keep anyone informed of anything.
Some time ago my oldest brother and I
were visiting and ???remembering Lillie.??? Knowing she had
little cash, he had sent her money for a headstone when her
husband died. He had never told me this - I don??™t think he
had told anyone. He knew Lillie probably didn??™t have the
money for a stone so he had graciously sent her a check.
What a fine, fine nephew she had!
After finally hearing of Lillie??™s
death, my brother contacted the cemetery for the exact date
of death and interment for family records. What a shock to
hear she was not there, nor had a stone ever been set for
her husband. We pretty much figured who had gotten his
hands on the money! Again, we were angry beyond words. My
brother left his name and number with the cemetery sexton
just in case he ever had any additional information.
However, it seemed we had come to a dead-end.
Last year the sexton did call to report
Lillie??™s son had recently ???mailed??? her ashes to the
cemetery! I guess we??™ll never know where her remains had
been for two years, and maybe we don??™t really want to know.
Finally she was laid to rest next to her husband, but still
no arrangements had been made for headstones, so they
literally had pauper??™s graves. The thought of that was more
than we could handle. It was as if two of the finest people
ever - had never existed at all. How dare their son allow
this? My brother and I ordered stones immediately and I
considered it the best money I??™d ever spent. Once the
stones had been set, the sexton was kind enough to take
photos and send them to us.
At long last I felt Aunt Lillie and
Uncle Marvin had a small portion of the respect, admiration,
and recognition they both deserved. May they rest in
peace??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦
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To read archived stories, click on this link:
http://archives.zinester.com/9516/2004
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Blessings to you today
Bob Johnston
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