Today is my favorite Aunt Kay’s birthday. Okay, she’s my only aunt, but if I had a hundred, she would still be my favorite. Her name isn’t really Kay either. I called her Aunt Kay when I was a little girl and it stuck. She tried a couple times to switch me to Carol but that just wasn’t going to happen. She’s my Aunt Kay and that’s that, am-zis!
Oddly we’ve only actually met a handful of times - a couple times when I was little, then when I was in law school and helped her drive her car to Florida; she came to visit when I was married and raising the girls in Texas and then I went to see her in Arizona a few years back. That’s five times as I count it that we’ve met face to face, and yet she is a more present part of my life than anyone else in this world.
You see, Aunt Kay was the best pen pal a little girl could ever hope to have. For as long as I can remember, she has been writing me. It was always a thrill to see the envelope with her long, sharp writing and the little special smiley faces only she made. Her letters saw me through girl scout cookies and skating dorms, teenage angst and boys, college, law school, marriages, divorces, and children of my own. I still have all those letters, hundreds and hundreds of them packed away in memory boxes at a friend’s home in Charlotte. When snail mail gave way to email, I talked my dad into buying her the I-opener. It wasn’t a computer per se, just a little box that could access the internet on a dial up. The darn thing wasn’t any good for anything but email, but boy did we burn up the email.
When I left Charlotte and hit the road, Aunt Kay stayed with me every step of the way. She read every article, looked at every picture, supported me at every twist and turn my life took these last three years. She was my biggest fan and the best cheerleader. She cheered me up when I was down, cheered me on when I was unsure, and cheered with me at every joyful moment. She was great. Other people in my life are there for me in many ways, and I love and appreciate them all, but MFA, my favorite Aunt Kay, has been there for me every day in every way with unmatched enthusiasm, devotion, and support.
Now of course there is always a price to pay for such devotion. She is a nag, yep, sure as there are nags in this world she is one. But she only nags about one thing – pictures. Well, two things, pictures and captions. Make that three – pictures and captions of me. Beautiful landscapes, incredible architecture, breathtaking art isn’t enough, there better be a few crazy pictures of my little blonde head or you best bet she’ll be nagging. Have you noticed the pictures on the site captioned – ‘Hi Aunt Kay’? Now you know why. I was always searching for photo ops for Aunt Kay – not an easy thing when you are on the road solo. I was forever setting up the camera and racing across a mountain cliff hoping I didn’t fall or through a crowd of people hoping none of them grabbed the camera and ran the opposite direction!
So, while thinking what to do for my favorite aunt for her birthday, given I live on the other side of the moon and shipping is unrealistic, it dawned on me the best present I could give her – a ‘Hi Aunt Kay’ Happy Birthday slide show. So here it is! I love you Aunt Kay – you are the most consistently bright and shining star in my universe.
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| Hi Aunt Kay!! |
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