Before I left Arizona last week, I saw my Great-Aunt one last time to say, “Good-By.” I picked her up from my relative’s house where she lived and slept. She had combed her short blonde hair pretty and straight, scrubbing her face shiny to glow in the sun. “Are you ready, Aunt Shirley?” “Oh, heaven’s yes,” she answered, her sparkling blue eyes twinkling.
As we drove to one of her favorite restaurants in town, we passed familiar cactus in the wide open desert together with several stray dogs roaming on the street. Aunt Shirley’s frail hands were folded in her lap. She fidgeted, knowing it was our last visit, for this trip at least. When would I be coming back? That’s what she was thinking, as I read her silent senior mind. My visits were one of the things that she most looked forward to.
It’s hard for…
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Extended Family Connection 