Anniversary Week

Two years ago yesterday, I broke my wrist.

Wrapped

My Aunt Kath, who died 28th January 2015, would have been one hundred on Tuesday.

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More about Kath

My cousin Helen sent me this fabulous photo of Aunt Kath as a teenager enjoying herself in the sea.

Kath was always beautiful from childhood onwards. I don’t think she lacked male attention, but once widowed while still young she had no desire, at least to my knowledge, to remarry. I have the barest memory of her husband. He was on the periphery of my vision, while she was centre stage.

Aunt Kath 1916-2015

I got the news when I woke up; an email to say my father’s elder sister, the last of his siblings, had died in the early hours.

It wasn’t altogether a surprise. My cousin Helen contacted me on Sunday to say her mother was very unwell and receiving palliative care. I don’t yet know the details. At Christmas the news was that she was in great shape and the family was confident she would reach her hundredth birthday in March next year. I was thinking of going to see her. She lived these last dozen years or in Gozo where both her daughters had moved with their husbands.

So it’s a while since I saw her, and she hasn’t been able to write for some time. I am not sure she would have known who I was, but I am sure the connection would still have been there. She was the dearest and loveliest of aunts. I spent many hours in her company. We watched Diana Rigg in the Avengers on Friday evenings, walked her dogs across the common and down by the river.

She had a foray into dog breeding – wire haired Dachshunds, great little dogs with big personalities. Her Saluki, Penny, aka The Duchess, disapproved of their rough and tumble ways and how they would commandeer her bed.

Oh, Beautiful…

The tulips, again in the bathroom, were clearly on their last legs, but somehow, even more beautiful than when they were new.

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Aunt Kath had a friend who was an artist and painted stunningly gorgeous paintings of flowers. These remind me of her work. Helen, if you read this, could you supply her name please?

Aunt Kath’s Birthday

I just read this email from my cousin Helen. She had been showing Aunt Kath the post and the comments.

“Just managed to prise Mum away from your blog. That was a real success although she couldn’t read the comments she could see the pictures and the bold headings and loved it.
Well done, some lovely comments from your friends.”

Thank-you, everyone. Warm fuzzy moments all round.