Tag lines.

“The building has all the requisites of a great aunt. She is neither very pretty nor elegant, but she has enduring qualities of character.” Richard Oulahan quotes
I've been tagged! By Ash. Apparently I have to list 5 things I appreciate about someone & 5 things they've done for me. Like most people there are lots of people I could choose from but I'm going to choose my Aunt Shirley. For starters she's dead so I can't possibly offend her. [No! That's not one of the things I appreciate about her.] For seconds I am sometimes more like her than any of us are comfortable with.

1. She knew how to garden with style. I have found chamber pots with geraniums in at her house. Charmed me no end. I thought then & think now, 'what a novel use for a disused item.' I learnt to garden as an extension of myself from her.

2.Faith. My aunt was a woman of great [if conventional] faith. I don't remember her ever making a fuss about it but her faith quietly permeated every aspect of her life.

3. History. My aunt had scant regard for the facts when it came to history but boy, oh boy, could she tell a whale of a story! I love history because I first learnt it from someone who loved it too. She told the best stories about the family & all protestations from those that were there that it just wasn't so were met with a vast indifference.

4.Painting. My aunt painted in oils where no mistakes are irredeemable. Interesting application to the rest of life. Every time I look at one of her landscapes I am reminded of the innumerable people [my aunt wasn't good at figures] who *took a toilet break* in the scrub & never reappeared on her canvasses.

5. Housekeeping. Those who read here & recall my aunt's housekeeping may be a little surprised by this one because: She never did any housework. She would garden all the morning & read in the afternoon. S.Cane I truly appreciate this. Some things in life are more important than housework.

Now my aunt was my aunt & I didn't really see all that much of her. Different state & driving with my father from N.S.W. to Queensland was no~one's idea of a picnic in the park. Dad stopped only for fuel. If you wanted the loo you bolted for the rest room as soon as the car stopped moving. My brother John & I would be car sick from the moment we pulled out of our own drive to the moment we arrived safe & sound at my aunt's.

So I appreciate that my aunt, who adored her younger brother & practically raised him gave me her time. Time is important to children. They can do without many things but the value of time can never be undervalued.

She taught me to laugh at myself. I was an overly serious & intense child who made mine & everybody else's life miserable. It took a while but being able to find my dramatics funny has been an immeasurable gift.

When I knew her well my aunt painted for a living. She painted a small dark picture of a New Zealand lake that someone now has hanging in their living room. I hope they appreciate it because I very badly wanted to own that painting. My aunt heard about that painting every time I saw her & eventually she painted me my own. It hangs in my bedroom. It is not the painting I remember. It is not the painting I wanted but it was painted just for me with love & I treasure it.

On the rare occasions she visited us she shared my bedroom. There were advantages to being the only girl in the family. I never found it easy to drift of to sleep & was often awake long after even my night owl of a mother had turned off the lights. In the darkness I learnt to tell myself long winded tales that went on & on & on....& on. My aunt, who must have been tired when she came to bed, would lie in the dark beside me softly reciting poetry. That a lot of it was sentimental tosh doesn't matter in the least. She was a musician & I heard the cadences in her recitations. I love the way language can be manipulated.

She died on my birthday. Charming. Sometime later her oldest daughter, going through her things, found the book my aunt never got around to having published & sent it along to me as being the only member of the family who might be interested. I appreciate that Shirely took the time to write down some of the story of her life. It is a history worth knowing.



Now I have to tag somebody else. Moly; You're it! No returns!