Today my Aunt Becky passed away. She would have been 83 this July.
This photo above is the last time I ever saw her. Appropriately, it was Glover Day: July 30, 2011, just a few days after her 82nd birthday. I remember she commented on my "hot dog earrings" I was wearing.
I like that the last time I saw her was in Glover. If I remember correctly she wanted to go on a "walking tour" of Glover that day and Joan went around with her.
I have many images of Becky, but my strongest memories of her are represented by this old photo:
Dad and Becky, digging around (literally) for something in an old graveyard off some dirt road in some hidden town in Vermont (this one happens to be in Eden).
The photo below is me, Mom & Wes with Becky & my Grandmother. Becky took in my Grandmother when she was an elderly widow. I don't know exactly how many years it was, but I think she lived with her for a few decades. My entire existence my Grammie lived in Colchester at Becky's. This is another reason why we saw her a lot.
Wesley, when he was about 13, told me that he thought it was really nice that we called Becky "Aunt Becky". He thought we were just being nice to her cause she was some kind lady that took care of our grandmother. He apparently didn't realize she was ALSO Dad's sister. This has been a big joke over the years.
Dad was one of 6 children, and Mom is one of 16. That's a lot of aunts & uncles. Of them all, I knew Becky the best, and the longest. I spent more days than anybody can count alone in cemeteries with just her, my Dad, maybe my mom, maybe a sibling. In big families, that kind of alone time doesn't happen too often.
Some old photos - Dad with Ellie, Becky & my uncle Jake. Willoughby Lake, VT.
My Gram with Becky as a baby, Uncle Warren standing guard.
The 6 siblings. Becky far left. Then Elaine (who is the only one living), Dad, Eleanor, Warren holding Dickie.
Becky as a toddler. A rare photo.
Look at those curls!
Crystal Lake? Dad, Becky & Ellie, together today in Heaven.
We've said it before, but boy she was beautiful. Becky became a nurse and remained one for all of her professional life. She loved history of all kinds, and besides genealogy also liked learning about Indians. She could sew well and had a group of "Sewing Girls" who have been her friends for decades.
This is the Becky I remember. Getting down on her knees to inspect a gravestone, bitten by the same bug as Dad in the early 70's. Here with my cousin Debbi behind the American flag. Like so many of her generation, she was well patriotic, and a staunch Republican.
Wartime:
On the family farm in Glover, the 3 sisters. Little Becky in the middle. 3 weeks ago on the phone, she said to me "when I feel better I'm gonna get up there to Glover to see Elaine. It's just her and me now, you know."
In front of a well-known home in Glover.
My grandmother's 80th in 1984: Becky with Martha & Mary, Jesse as a toddler.
Becky was, in many ways, my father incarnate in female form. Mary with Becky and her sons, my cousins, Alex & Bill at Shadow Lake. She was a good fisherman and I think she even did some hunting with my uncle Walter.
She loved my babies. This is Léna.
I like to see this photo because you can see her fingernails. She always had the greatest self-manicure I ever saw. Always the same colors.
She wasn't afraid to get right in between all my brothers and find out just what's what.
Becky's second husband Walter came from a family that owns one of the oldest homes in Colchester. It used to be a stage coach inn. Here we are on the front porch, 2010.
She always found a little something for somebody to play with. In that house, you never were lacking for something to look at. It had two separate upstairs. The most incredible house I have ever been in that belonged to somebody in my immediate family.
I often think of eating apples when I see this porch. We used to go up into the Grand Isles to Alleholm farms to buy apples, and stop and pick up my Gram. I remember eating a lot of apples after and then sitting in that swing.
She was famous for giving stuffed animals to my girls. Over and over and over. Here's a big bunny.
If you look closely at this table in our cabin, you can see some big cupcakes. Courtesy of Becky. Another late-in-life tradition we all enjoyed from her.
Just can't believe it. When I spoke with her for about half an hour, 3 weeks ago she said "when you come round this summer those girls'll be bigger'n me." I never imagined I wouldn't see her again. But what a relief that all 3 of her children were right at her side this week in the hospital.
Above: Martha, Jolene, Debbie & Elizabeth. 4 cousins from 4 different siblings. This was the day Jolene arrived from out west. She never left her mother's side.
And to my cousin Bill, who has been Becky's caregiver and companion since my Uncle Walter's death in 2000. We owe him gratitude for taking such good care of her.
The last line of my father's obituary 11 years ago was one sentence which read: He will be missed. The same goes for Becky. I am so sad to not be in Vermont now to honor her life at the time of her death. A great, great lady and a major fixture in my life, and all of my siblings'. She will be missed.
The Easter Bunny has to get creative in France. No pastel candies, no jelly beans as we know them, no pastel M&M's or foil wrapped special Darks. No Peeps, no chicks. No white eggs (oh lord that's ANOTHER story I'll save for when I have the energy - I think I am emotionally - and fiscally - scarred).
Usually I buy Easter candy when I'm in America for the winter break, which of course I was unable to do this year. So here's one chocoloate bunny we bought for $15 at the bakery.
So this year the Easter Bunny brought lots of great Easter-themed books.
Every time I see the photo below, for some reason I think "Uncle Sam wants YOU!"
On Good Friday, we had a little visit from Baby Basile, who is nearly 6 months old. Eliott & Estelle were at school. Friday afternoons I stay home with Léna.
Léna likes to give him kisses!
Estelle enjoying a gift from one of my students.
Night-time reading:
Peekaboo
The girls have (re) discovered that if you pull off a turtleneck and leave it on, it's like you have long hair!
Notice that by the next afternoon she was eating cake batter.
This was so funny to them. Pile stuffed animals on the couch.
Hope everyone has a nice Easter day. Spring has certainly sprung in Nice. This has been a long, hard winter for me, starting on Halloween when I first got sick. Lots of you have emailed and asked about my lungs - I am back to full steam as far as work, etc, but I can feel that my respiratory system hasn't quite caught up with me yet. Some days I seem to cough a lot with all kinds of gunk coming up and other days I forget all about it. The doctors said it would be long, and it's already been over 5 months - Easter means Spring and spring means warm days and clear lungs, I hope!
