Tomorrow my dear great aunt would have celebrated her 99th birthday a party was planned but Aunt Frieda passed up the invitation for something far better.
Two days before celebrating her birthday Aunt Frieda was taken home to Jesus. She is celebrating today with her sister who went home just a few short months before her, with her only brother who died before adulthood, her parents, and the list goes on.
We nieces and nephews have many fond memories of Aunt Frieda. She never married so we were her children to spoil. The older one’s have fond memories of sleeping over at her house, with special things just for them. I remember the Aunt Frieda who took us out to eat getting us anything we wanted. Braum’s was always the place for dessert. Even if we had already indulged our sweet tooth’s Aunt Frieda always at least had to buy us ice cream (and a few other things!) to take home. Braums was probably as much as part of Aunt Frieda as brushing her teeth. She frequented the place so much that the employees eagerly recognized her.
I fondly remember cleaning for Aunt Frieda. It was so fun to clean her little apartment and then there were the breaks to have instant iced tea with lots of sugar. And the rare treat of store bought cookies. And did I mention I was getting paid by the hour?
Later as Aunt Frieda moved to the nursing home she became known for her sweet tooth. The nursing staff quickly found out that while Aunt Frieda didn’t have an appetite for much else she could eat 3 glazed doughnuts for breakfast. Indeed Aunt Frieda was known to empty a good amount of the sugar bowl into her coffee!
After Aunt Frieda’s move to the nursing home she declined slowly. Her hearing always bad grew worse till she was could barely understand anything. Her sight wasn’t any better; she preferred not to wear glasses because of comfort so it was hard for her. It was very hard to watch the dear sweet Aunt Frieda we had always known slowly decline till she didn’t even recognize us.
The afternoon before Aunt Frieda died I saw her. She was sleeping and did not look well. I kissed her and told her I loved her. It was the last greeting spoken to her by her beloved nieces and nephews.
In the morning received word that Aunt Frieda had died. And we rejoiced. This earth is nothing, we new Aunt Frieda’s pain and we were happy she was in a place where there is no pain or tears.
I feel it wouldn’t be out of order to bake a cake and eat it tomorrow in celebration of Aunt Freda’s home going. It is we that are missing the party not Aunt Frieda.
Picture taken at her 98th birthday last year. L to R, Grandma, Aunt Frieda, Myself.
1 comment:
What a precious post! The opportunity to help elderly relatives is such a joy. Your Aunt Frieda sounds so special!
Thanks so much for the comment you left on my blog (regarding So Much More). I read the book and wrote a review, which I plan to post--I just need to verify some information before I go public with it. Don't want to publish anything false, you know. :) My encouragement to you is to look to God's Word as you make your decisions. Seek out what He has specifically said and know that whatever He guides you to do will line up with that!
There were some things I *loved* about the book, but my main concern with it is that scripture is very much taken out of context and mishandled, which is great cause for concern.
Blessings!
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