Another goodbye

I have this great aunt that passed away early Friday morning, she was a hoot to be around so maybe that’s were the word “Great” aunt came from?
Anyway she’d been sick a long while from her kidneys not wanting to cooperate making her swell up three times her normal size. The lady was nearly eighty years old and wouldn’t take guff from any one-- even the nurses. I believe that might have been her down fall in the end because the nurses would try to get her to do her therapy and she would refuse.
In her younger years she would keep myself and Luke some afternoons just to give my mom a break whilst the taught school and prepaid homework assignments. Luke and I knew exactly what to do to push that her buttons. Once she gave us Kool Aid to drink with our lunch meal, Luke would say “Ahh, this is some great wine!” and of course I would chime in with “Yes, I love it, it‘s much better than the beer you gave us!” she would her us and get all riled up, “That is Kool Aid and nothing more!” I never could understand why she would lose it over us pretending.
In the food store we would follow her around up and down the rows of food puffing on our gum cigars or chalky cigarettes. Later on we advanced to the Big Chew chewing gum and drove her batty.
She had 3 kids that were older than us, so they wouldn’t really play with the two little guys much so we had to entertain ourselves.
Later on in her life she started turning for the worse, becoming more grumpy and opinionated that would drive people away from her. She became one of those nit picky people that would nail you on anything she could find. It would make holidays and family reunions interesting, especially if you had a cousin that had gained some weight, crazy hair color, child out of wedlock or odd clothing. Be assured she would have some comment on it. Her kids were shown no mercy.
However picky she might have been she was very sweet if you called her out about her mood. My G would break her with a “Calm it down” and she would chill out.
Sunday they laid her to rest, it was funny though, the rain and winds were blasting that morning and I dread getting out in it for the burial but as we walked out the chapel the sun was shining and everything was drying off. Its as if God was cleaning the patch of earth they were about to put her in.