I have a large extended family, and we are all super close. On my Dad’s side especially, the cousins all grew up best friends, especially the 4 girls from my family and the 3 girls from my Dad’s sister’s family, because the 7 of us were all born within 7 years of each other. We grew up staying at each other’s houses, going to school with each other when one had the day off and one didn’t (for fun – aren’t we weird?), and we all love nothing more than to sit down and play a game of Scrabble and laugh our butts off together.
On Sunday morning we experienced one of the highest of highs possible in life – the birth of our son. On Monday morning we experienced one of the lowest of lows possible in life – the unexpected, sudden death of my aunt. She was literally my favorite aunt – full of joy and laughter and kindness. The emotional roller coaster we have been on this week has been full of gut wrenching highs and lows, and it’s been so hard to realize that I just couldn’t get back to MN to be with my family during all of this. Flying with a 5 day old during flu season scares me, so here I sit on my couch in Colorado, praying for my family, hoping that the funeral this morning will be full of laughter and happy stories, though I’m sure there will be plenty of tears in there too.
My aunt always said she didn’t want a sad funeral followed by the typical midwestern ham sandwiches, jello molds & lemonade, so instead they’re planning a celebration of her life today, and they’ll be serving tacos in a bag & have kegs of 1919 Rootbeer. I hope it’s a blast, just like my aunt would have wanted…
A little tribute to my Scrabble loving aunt, assembled by her husband. <3