In search of a proper tribute.......

Good Evening and welcome to this blog once again. I'm honored and flattered that you would chose to come. Please make yourselves at home and feel free to comment whatever is on your heart and mind. This Evening I'm going to speak a bit about something that is very close to my heart. I have an Aunt that is ninety four years old. Her name is Dicie and she was born on January third in the year of our Lord Nineteen hundred and twelve. She has, of course, been a part of my life since I can remember. How do I say what I want to convey? I'm not sure but I'll give it my best effort. She is my Dad's older sister and the oldest still living. Up until a week ago she still lived alone in her own place. About a week ago she fell in her front yard while working in her flowers. Fortunately a neighbor a few yards away saw her fall and ran to give assistance. He of course called 911. They arrived quickly and took her to the emergency room about five miles away. After the tests and examination she was admitted to the hospital. Her doctor told us that her hip joint was so worn out that she'd never be able to walk again, at least very well. After she was treated for minor injuries and treated for pain she was released to a local nursing home which she will probably have to stay in. You may be asking yourself at this point why I'm posting so extensively about all of this. Let me expound. Aunt Dicie has been a large part of my life since my first memories of life. She married her deceased husband, Lee, while in her mid to late teens and they were together for almost sixty years, at which time he passed away. In my memories of her from earliest childhood my recall of her is that of kindness, gentleness and graciousness. I can never recall her speaking a cross word to anyone at anytime, though I'm sure she had her moments. She and Uncle Lee lived as newly weds through the depression of the nineteen thirties. With jobs and work so very hard to come by Uncle Lee would make a trip on foot every year from Walker County in central Alabama to Florida to help harvest the citrus crops. He did this for several years and was paid every day his wage. I seem to remember him telling me that they were paid about ten or twelve cents a day and were happy to have that. While there his diet consisted of water and crackers. After the harvest was completed He'd walk back to his home in Central Alabama. Aunt Dicie never learned to drive though she did attempt it back in the nineteen fifties. Many of the roads close to their house were still dirt and difficult to drive on so she became content to let Uncle Lee do the driving. I recall as a young child, whenever I was with Aunt Dicie she would slip me some sugar or fruit, etc. She loved children more than anyone I can remember She never did have any of her own, having tried for many years. To my knowledge she was never able to conceive and fertility doctors were years in the future. I wish I had time and space and ability to write everything I can remember about her and the extraordinary life she lived and the lives she impacted. In her later years, after the death of Uncle Lee, I was presented with the amazing good fortune of being able to live very close to her and was lucky enough to be able to watch out for her and take care of things she could no longer do. Up to year before last she still insisted on cutting her own lawn with her own push mower. She and I compromised by agreeing on a plan that would work. I'd cut her grass and she'd do the trim work. I didn't know for months that she was, at ninety two years old, going a couple of doors down to a lady that couldn't cut her grass and would cut it for her. She never did care for lawn tractors, so it really was a concession on her part to make that compromise. I was also privledged to be allowed to fix or repair whatever she had that needed it. Not wanting to be a 'nuisance' she had hired some work done and gotten ripped off. I had the honor for the last several years of her time at home to be able to not only fix things for her but to look out for her interests when she had anything done. So I ask, how do I give honor and tribute to such an extraordinary person. Whatever I say seems to me to fall so dreadfully short and inadequate. Even though she's lost her ability to walk her mind stays as sharp as it ever was, and for that I'm thankful. So, I'll simply say "thank you Aunt Dicie" for everything. Thank you for just being you. Thank you for the positive impact on, not only mine, but countless numbers of the lives you touched in ninety four years. The world would be a much better place if it had more "Aunt Dicies" in it. It's with a sad heart that I say, .......and so it went.......