My Special Aunt - Part Two

This is the second part of my memories of Aunt Kay....Scroll down and read the first part then read this part two.


I wanted to add some more of my memories of my Aunt Kay.  I sure do miss her and sometimes I feel she is close by, especially when my thoughts turn to her for no reason.  She was someone I could talk to about any problem I had.  She had a way of knowing when something was wrong with me and could dig out my deepest secret.  Some of our family used to joke and say she should hang out her shingle. I wasn't the only one that she could dig out problems no matter if you had no intention of telling anyone. She could read your mind I swear.  She would talk you through the problem, knowing what questions to ask, and then would help you solve it.

She is the reason Frank and I are together.  Frank was married to Penny and Aunt Kay knew they were not happy together. She would tell Frank that we would be a good match, and then she would tell me the same thing.  We had never met at the time she told us, but she had planted the seed.  I am so grateful to her and Penny for Frank and I having a happy marriage of 35 years on the 25th of March.  Penny will tell you that she knows God played a part in our union.  If she hadn't been with Frank and brought him out to Salt Lake City from Oklahoma, Frank and I would have never met. Frank and I know that Heavenly Father had a hand in us meeting we feel He laid out a path for us to meet. The crazy thing is that my family knew Frank before I did.

Aunt Kay had a little mischievous spirit that came out every now and then.  She and my cousin Lee are the reason I am afraid of the dark.  When Mom took my sister and I back to North Carolina, I slept in the upstairs bedroom of the old Smith home.  Aunt Kay and Lee decided to scare me in that dark room and they did a good job. I think they acted like they were ghost wrapped in sheets. I was only four at the time, and I can't sleep to this day without a night light.  I am still afraid of the dark.

Aunt Kay told of the time she took one of her cousins down to the creek and they caught a frog and proceeded to dissect it.  Something I could have never done as I am a lover of animals.  Then there was the time I was visiting her on Marion Street when she wanted me to go out and see what their fenced in guard dog would do when I approached it.  She knew I had a way with animals and wanted to see what this mean dog would do with me.  He did what any guard dog who was penned up would do.  He tried to attack me through the fence, just as she was going to let me go in the pen with him. Thank Heavens, she didn't get that gate open.

Then there was the time she asked me if I wanted some gum.  Of course I did, and then in the night I woke up with stomach cramps, and was running to the bathroom all night long.  She had given me laxative gum. I can laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny the night it happened.

Aunt Kay and I would dance and sing when I stayed with her.  We loved to harmonize and sing our hearts out.  She taught me that I never wanted to drink booze.  I had my heart broken by a boy friend who stood me up on New Years Eve so I went over to her house to cry on her shoulder.  She ended up giving me Cherry Slow Gin Fizzes, a very sweet drink.  I was dancing around singing "I'm Going to Wash That Man Right out of my Hair"  making the motions of washing my hair. She recorded me and we had many laughs later when we listened to it.  I was feeling good until the next morning when I woke up sicker than a dog.  I thought to myself  "why does anyone want to drink and then be sick,"  I never drank nor had any desire to do so after that.  Also I lived with alcoholic parents and I hated what it did to them, and my religion teaches us not to drink alcoholic beverages. I have seen too many of my family members destroy their lives due to Alcohol.

Aunt Kay had a lot of nervous energy and would talk on the phone while walking up and down the hallway in her home on Marion St.  She actually wore a path in the floor where she walked back and forth.  She had one of those stretch cords on her phone that would allow her to do this.  She also smoked starting the bad habit as a young girl in North Carolina where tobacco was grown.  It was a common thing for kids to start smoking at young ages in the South.  If it hadn't been for her nervous energy, and staying slim, she more than likely would have passed away at a much younger age from COPD.

Aunt Kay was a beautiful woman especially when she was all dressed up to go shopping, etc.  I drove her to some of the places she went as she and my mom never did learn to drive. I loved to walk with her and watch all the men give her the second look.  She was oblivious to the attention she was getting. I always wished I could have had her good looks, instead of being a red hair freckled faced girl.  Both my Mom and Aunt Kay had black hair.

When I was first pregnant with my first daughter, Aunt Kay took me to the doctor she had gone to, Dr. Latteire.  I was so scared as back in those days we didn't go to doctors very often.  Then when Aunt Kay told me how good looking he was, I about ran away. I made her come into the exam room with me.  He ended up being the best doctor I ever had.  I even went back to him when Larry was killed.  I will never forget how he came around from his desk and put his arm around me to comfort me and to talk to me.  Since I had my three children all so close, he knew Larry and I quite well.  In fact he even offered to come out to Grantsville and help Larry paint our new home we were building.  He was a very special man.

Aunt Kay was a lot like my Mom as they both loved to be outside in the summer gardening and oh how they loved their tomatoes.  When I think of them, that is where I place them out in their gardens, vegetables and beautiful flowers.  Both did a lot of cooking, in fact I can picture Aunt Kay behind her kitchen island stirring something on her stove, and asking you to taste it.  She never felt like she was a good cook like my Mom, but she was.  The only difference was that Aunt Kay had to cook what ever Uncle Gene brought home from the store and she had to be creative.  Uncle Gene did all the grocery shopping, as he was a bargain shopper, and not only with groceries.

When I moved to Nevada, Aunt Kay and I would talk on the phone quite often.  When I visited family in Salt Lake, I spent most of my time with her.  When I had a nervous breakdown I left my Nevada home and went to stay with her, and she helped me back to good health, mostly with her way of talking to me and helping me to understand my problem of a very unhappy second marriage.  I loved her as a second Mom, and to this day, I miss her.  One day we will have a wonderful reunion on the other side, and I will finally get to meet my grandmother Cora.

When Aunt Kay moved to St. George, I was elated as then I got to see her more often. I loved visiting with her.  Frank and I almost moved to St. George, and I think it was mostly because of her. I am so grateful for having her in my life especially since my Mom became an alcoholic, and wasn't capable of taking care of  her family. Aunt Kay was there to mother me, and help me through some pretty tough times, including losing my husband Larry at such a young age.  When I find a penny, I always think of her and say "Aunt Kay is sending me pennies from Heaven."