Since I’ve already posted about becoming an aunt, I figured I should have some continuity and talk about why I love being an aunt and what makes it so special. There are many things about it that I love but Simeon, Esther, Eden and Kaloyana make each and every moment mean something. It could just be kissing their hands and knees when they fall on the rocks in our driveway or having them come up to me, give me a great big hug, and say, “We love you, Auntie Emma.” Since they all live far away, every time I see them makes it worth the time apart because our reunion is all the more exciting.
When they are here visiting, one of my favorite things I love doing with them is taking them to Dairy Queen (where I work) and buying them a treat. I remember one day, summer 2010, my dad and I took Simeon and Esther to have a sundae. As we were eating, Simeon was excited to be eating ice cream and was swinging his arms up and down, being the goofy-sort that he is. While in the process of swinging his arms, he accidentally hit his funny bone on the table and the look of excitement on his face changed to a look of pain. I quickly ran around the table and knelt down beside him.
“Oh Sim! Did you hit your funny bone?”
I remember him nodding his head. He kept his head bowed and then, after a minute, looked up at me. What I saw almost broke my heart. My sweet, innocent little nephew looked at me with tears flooding his eyes and said, “Yes. But Auntie Emma, it’s not very funny.”
I gave him a hug and held him for a minute. He soon saw the humor in the situation and was, once again, able to laugh and enjoy his ice cream.
During that same visit, I was playing on the rocks in our driveway with Esther. She was picking up rocks and making a pile (a castle, if I remember correctly ☺). I turned my back for a minute to grab a particularly interesting rock and, two seconds after I turned around, Esther began screaming. I whipped back around to find her sprawled out on the rocks on her tummy and her hands cut and bloody. I quickly sat down beside her and pulled her into my lap, holding her hand against my chest, as I tried to soothe the sobs that were shaking her little body. As she had been walking to pick up a rock, her sandal had caught on a stick, causing her to trip and fall on her tummy. I told her everything was going to be okay, picked her up, took her inside to the bathroom, and began to wash her hands clean. After I had her cleaned up and had stuck a band-aid on her cut, I kissed her hands better and we went back outside to finish our castle.
One of the harder things about living so far away from my nieces and nephew is that I rarely get to see them. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely blessed for all the times I have seen them but I feel as though I have missed some important moments in their lives. As I’ve already said, my niece Eden was born in June 2010. Since she lives in Connecticut, I, sadly, didn’t get to meet her until she was almost six months old. I remember the exact moment, though, when I did meet her. My brother-in-law, Jeremiah, and sister, Courtney, and little Eden arrived at our house around one o’clock in the morning on a cold winter night. It was just a few weeks before Christmas and I was sad that Eden was sleeping because it meant I didn’t get to hug her. I knew I could wait until morning but it definitely was disappointing.
We all went to bed really late because we visited with Court and Jer for a couple of hours. When we all went to bed, I fell asleep right away. What seemed like only a few minutes later, I was gently shaken by Court explaining that she couldn’t get the t.v. working. I stumbled downstairs, half asleep, to find Eden sitting in her Bumbo chair, watching PraiseBaby. After fixing the t.v., I told Courtney to go back to bed because I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. And that’s when I met my niece. We sat on the floor together, watching her movie. I remember laying my head beside her, desperately hoping to make a connection with this little girl that I loved so much, without scaring her. I succeeded. She placed her hand on my cheek and we watched the whole movie like that.
About two weeks prior to Eden’s visit, my sister, Deanna, had to come home on a whirl-wind flight from Winnipeg for our great-grandmother’s funeral. Since my niece, Kaloyana, was only a few months old, she had to come too. She ended up being the shining light of hope in all our lives as we walked through a difficult time.
One of my favorite memories that I have with her is actually when Dee stepped off the plane. She had Kaloyana all wrapped up and her hat was pulled over her eyes. As Deanna adjusted the hat, Kaloyana looked at us with sparkles in her beautiful, shiny eyes and, just looked at Maddie and I. However, as soon as my dad stepped into her view, looked at her, and said, “Hello Kaloyana!” in his special voice he only uses to talk to his grandchildren, she gave him a smile that just about split her little face in two.
I think it was at that moment that I somehow knew Kaloyana was going to be a help at the funeral. I realized that, although Nanny Walsh passed on, her amazing legacy of 13 children, 28 grandchildren, 53 great-grandchildren, and 4 great-great-grandchildren would live on and she would always be remembered.
