Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Wistful Wednesday: Aunt Skip

Not all my Mother’s sisters had nicknames…but Vivian did…she was Skippy or Skip for short.

Skip and Madeline Bikes 1949 (2)

Someone took this photo of Skip and me (My Mom) in 1949. My Mom was four years older than Aunt Skip.

Skip #1 (2)

Aunt Skip

She married my Uncle Theron, he was a wonderful kind man, a Korean War Veteran and he drove a Buick (red and white).  I do not recall their wedding, I think it was a private ceremony.

Aunt Skip and Uncle Theron would have three children together and he ran a very successful business until he developed a brain tumor.  Sometimes I would visit at meal times in the hospital because he couldn’t feed himself or speak so that you could understand.  He always knew who I was I could tell by the smile in his eyes.  Eventually he was moved to a Nursing Home where he would spend the rest of his days unable to care for himself. He suffered for two years before he died when he was 49 years old.

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The funeral was held in this church on a very cold November day.  I did not recall this church until I saw it last week.

When my Aunt Skip died 30 years years later I attended the wake and not the funeral.  She had remarried…twice I think…one husband was a gold digger.   She was real keen on spiritual drawings and felt the spirit moved her to draw…maybe so…but I remained skeptical.  Some people need to cling to something when they have lost most everything.

Aunt Skip was a wonderful baker, she could have opened her own bakery.  She made the best white frosting covered in coconut fried roll you have ever tasted…even half frozen out of her freezer they were delicious.   She also made our wedding cake.

I wanted to find her gravesite.  Aunt Skip was 73 years old and had some kind of cancer when she died in 2007.

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18 comments:

Tom said...

It's wonderful to have all this family history.

RachelD said...

I SO love the forties pictures, for they are the black-and-white and sepia histories of my parents' era. As soon as my little fingers could handle the tiny work, I was allowed to glue those tee-ninecy "kodak corners" into the big old black-paged scrapbooks, and gently insert picture after picture.

Sis and DBIL have a new Ancestry site that I'm enjoying immensely, learning about all the folks that I knew by exactly the names my Mammaw called them as she told me family stories. Sis is the historian, researcher, genealogical travel-to-Ireland-and-Scotland and delve into the archives person, and I'm the Memories.

And I'm finding names I'd long cached in the mists of memory. What a treasure, and what a gift to be able to put person to name, and leave a little something myself in the memories I can share with people I don't know, of people I never met, but feel that I know just because of all the stories Mammaw passed on.

rachel

DJan said...

Since I am 73, it seems she died early, but now I'm realizing that it's impossible for me to have a premature demise, just like it's impossible for me to call my hair prematurely white. I wonder where the name "Skip" came from. I love your old memories and pictures. :-)

Rita said...

I wondered, too, where Skip came from. But, then again, my dad (Clarence) had the nickname Kelly since he was a teenager and couldn't even remember how it started. Sometimes you don't get answers--LOL!

Lady Fi said...

What a sad story.

Red said...

People live very interesting lives. It helps when you write an interesting account of that life.

Patsy said...

They both died to young!

Red said...

People live very interesting lives. It helps when you write an interesting account of that life.

Red said...

People live very interesting lives. It helps when you write an interesting account of that life.

Red said...

People live very interesting lives. It helps when you write an interesting account of that life.

L. D. said...

I guess there really isn't a normal for living but some people do have a way of taking all the different roads to get there. Our neighbor friends had an older son named Larry who they called skip. I think the other son was nicknamed Duke.

Linda Reeder said...

I see that your aunt came back to rest next to her "real" husband. Good.

Sam I Am...... said...

So sad when people are burdened with tragedies so young. I guess in those days they felt they had to marry again. She sounded like a wonderful gal and her husband too. I've had plenty of gold diggers want to marry me but I'm done. I agree with what you said about needing to cling to something when you've lost almost everything. Some things you never recover from.

Judy said...

I love family history. I love the photo of your mom and Aunt Skip with their bikes.

Granny Marigold said...

Your poor uncle died much too young! Your aunt was very pretty. I like the way she wore her hair.

Anonymous said...

As I read your story I was reminded of a favorite aunt
and uncle of mine. Thanks for sharing.

Henny Penny said...

How awful about your uncle, and sad too. I love the picture of your mom and aunt on the bikes. They both look so pretty!

Intense Guy said...

I love the banner for the 4th!! How does Chance do with fireworks?

Your uncle had a tragic life - but one where he knew he was much loved - I'm sure that eased his troubles considerably.