The Roller Coaster part 2

What a week it has been! Divorce, new job, and now an Aunt has passed away.

This was the Aunt that lived rather far away but we would travel down to see her family and they traveled up every year (sometimes twice a year) to spend time with us.

She seemed to be the spunky Aunt. The one who lived in a reality that as teens we understood and she understood us.

She was my Father's older sister. She was the one who could calm my Dad down at the "family functions gone awry". You see most of the members of that side of the family are alcoholics or do not drink at all. It made for interesting funerals, weddings, birthdays and other holidays. When someone in our family died (a rather small town) the liquor store raised it's prices before the extended family arrived.

Just a few of the highlights:

1. A drunk cousin got lost with the boat on the lake...or so we thought...they sent a then under aged One4jc out in the speedboat to track them down. I knew the lake well after dark and was quite handy with our boat. Did I mention they left at 2 in the afternoon? At 8:30pm someone on the boat finally convinced him to stop at a local bar on the water with a dock. They immediately called the house for help. I came home and parked the boat only to be taken to the bar to drive the other boat home.

2. At my grandpa's funeral one relative slapped another in front of the casket at the calling. Something about a daughter calling out another daughter (both cousins), a soap opera and the phrase "dead meat".

3. A cousin was sent by airplane home because of his drunken rampages. Dropped off at the airport at midnight to fly out the next day...talk about a huge timeout!

4. An uncle fell through/off a dock while fishing (and avoiding the funeral activities) but managed to NOT spill his beer by thrusting his arm upward as he fell into the 5 feet deep water. Didn't save the suit but by golly he didn't spill a drop!

5. A cousin who was a cop almost had to arrest another cousin who refused to give up the keys. And then a screaming match ensued once back at the house and his sisters flew out the door of the house in opposite directions. There stands my sister and I pointing their husbands in the right directions and then their parents in opposite directions to calm them down after the drunk cousin passed out in the living room.

Colorful? You bet!

Unfortunately she really liked Brandy and those long thin cigarettes. So the combination of a tumor in her liver didn't really shock any of us too much.

She passed away sitting at a kitchen table. That is the way she would have wanted to go.

Except she didn't have a glass of Brandy or a cigarette in her hand.

Rest In Peace...