Today is a special day. Today is the birthday of someone that I love very much. Today my Aunt Penny would have turned 50 had she not passed away this last August. Today has been hard.
She was so excited when she found out I was coming to Spain. I didn’t even get to tell her, my grandmother did. Yet, somehow people from home were calling me saying how excited they were for me to be going to Spain. When I asked how they knew, more people than not said, “You’re Aunt Penny cut my hair and all she did was talk about how proud of you she was! She didn’t even know I knew you at first!” I still laugh at that because there’s no telling how many people know I went to Spain this fall.
My Aunt Penny was a handful. You will not find a person that knew her that will say she wasn’t wild. There are hundreds of Penny stories. I hope one day I’ll have friends that can talk about me as fondly as hers do of her. She wasn’t perfect but she was real. She wasn’t afraid of being herself. Ever. And that’s something I hope to learn from her, even though she’s gone.
This will be our first holiday season without her and it is going to be so strange. Strange not to hear her cuss my sister for getting the good present in Dirty Santa. Strange not to hear her sing “Little Johny” to any of the kids that want to hear it. And maybe some that don’t. It’s going to be strange not hear her ask when we’re karaokeing or when I’m going to “get me a man.” It’ll be even more strange not to hear her say her token “men aren’t worth s**t” response when I say I haven’t found one worth dating yet. I could go on and on. But I won’t dwell on the sad parts. I’ll just cherish the time I had with her.
As much as I love Spain, I am now ready to come home. I am ready to be with my family. I wish I could have been with them today. But as long as I’m here, I’m going to honor my aunt. I’m going to make as many memories as possible this weekend and I’ll think of her while I’m doing it. Actually, I’m sure she’ll be whispering in my ear, telling me to do things I probably shouldn’t! That’s what she did best : )
For those of you who knew her, I miss her too. For those of you who didn’t, that’s a shame... You missed out.
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