These are the thoughts of a Texas transplant in West Michigan who makes his living as a newspaper reporter by evening, and a struggling novelist by day.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

the giving one

thursday we received bad news that my aunt minerva suffered a bad stroke. she'd been acting different all week, uncommunicative and not responding even to my niece emma -- who my aunt carries on with in silliness.

minerva was staying with my aunt elva and elva found her in the hospital bed, purple from head to toe. she looked bruised. she was taken to the hospital in alice then transferred to corpus.

i'm still unclear as to the extent of the stroke, but it appears pretty bad. she flails her arms and she pulls at her hair. she also chews on her tongue.

i get information from my family as to her condition. it pains me to hear what kind of state she's in. if she dies of this, she will be the third in our family to succomb to a stroke, along with brothers elias and gocha.

my aunt, affectionately called tia Mine by everyone who knows her, whether from her great nieces and nephew to her friends. that's how it carried on from one generation to another.

she never married and lives in the house she grew up in, my grandparents' house, next door to where my parents set up their home. so she was a fixture for me for about 30 years before i moved out of the ranch.

she's the most unselfish person i know. she gives and gives, no matter the cost. she never expects anything back. it's always from the kindness of her heart.

i think she's always got back two or three fold. she got back from the love of nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. she has always been there for everyone. always a rock.

but as time's gone on, life's gotten to her. she's 80. and the loss of three brothers has taken a toll. i've heard her say that when my dad died it was like losing a son since my dad was about 12 or 13 years younger than she. it pained her. my dad and she saw each other every day, having living in the same ranch all their lives in homes less than 20 yards apart. his loss and the loss of her other two brothers, was devastateing to her.

i pray my sweet aunt doesn't suffer much. she's too good a person, too unselfish a person, caring a person to be going through this indignity of life.

let's see what happens.

i love you with all my heart, Mine.