She’s always got her hair let down and a deck of cards ready to go. She can cook as well as her mother and has a smile that melted her father’s heart.
She married her high-school sweetheart…he didn’t stand a chance, and raised two boys who fancied themselves members of the Galactic Alliance.
I’ve seen her do the “Roam Around”, learned several things about the birds and the bees from her jokes, and found out she is the only living person who got my mother to say “fart” spontaneously.
She is unsinkable like Molly, uninhibited like Gypsy Rose, prissy like Mary Poppins, precocious like Shirley, and giving like Melanie Hamilton.
She is the glue that holds my dad’s family together. She is the noise when the silence must be broken. She is the smoother of ruffled feathers, the champion of spades, hearts, and pinochle and second only to Grandma in Scrabble.
She is my aunt. The youngest of four--her older siblings all boys--she cracks a whip that bites with humor and kindness and I have craved her company all of my life.
Laughter is the best medicine. Anyone who says differently needs to know my aunt. No one leaves her without feeling fine and glad to be alive.
So, I shall call her Evaline, an English name meaning “life”, for a woman who is an inspiration to all who spend their lives too much in their own head.
Thank you, God, for creating her. You not only broke the mold when you did, but whatever cooks the mold probably broke, too!
Hug, hug, kiss, kiss, Aunt Evaline!