I LOVE the stories that come out on FR about fathers and mothers and miscellaneous relatives. These are REAL good people, not just characters in books. They influenced people and are remembered with love for the kindnesses and small events that made up their lives. And when we remember them, too, then we help their memories last past them.
Glad you still have yours. Grandmother was raised among 16 siblings and those were the “aunts” whose funerals I spent my childhood attending. Aunt Eva was so gentle she could put her hand in a goldfish tank and the fish would swim onto it to be raised momentarily out of the water. Her apartment was filled with canaries.
My daughter Sally (who is a royal pain in some ways) is like a Disney princess with animals. They come out of the woods and the ponds and gaze at her, sighing (I suppose), “We love you, Sally!” A turtle came out of the lake when we were fishing with the Cub Scouts and let her carry it all over, let the Cubs pet it, and then, she said, “Goodbye, little turtle,” and it swam off in the lake. Life is weird.
My father died three years ago from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease, but my mother is still kicking, trying to control everything around her ... just like me!