The Importance of Family

This past week we drove out to New Mexico for a funeral. While it was a sad occassion, we made the best out of it by visiting with family we had not seen in a long time. One of those visits was to a wonderful lady, whose name is Toni. She is my great aunt. My father's mother died when he was five, and he has not seen my aunt Toni since he was 15, or spent time with that whole side of the family. We decided that it was time to break that cycle, and go meet her.

We pulled up to the house and I could feel my heart pounding, wondering who this woman was, what she was like. I was instantly greeted with a smiling face and pulled into a warm embrace. This was my great aunt. She welcomed us into the house and showed us into her study. Covering up two entire walls was pictures chronicling our family history. My great grandparents, cousins, and second cousins, and  pictures of my grandma. I had only ever seen one. Standing before this monument of family love I couldn't help but become emotional thinking, this is my family, all these people I never knew existed, all this time wasted.

I took a picture of the picture on the wall. My grandma is on the left, Aunt Toni on the right.

My Aunt Toni began telling us stories of her and my grandma from when they were younger, and suddenly I got chills. You know the saying, "you can't escape your genes?" Well I am definitley a believer. Come to find out my grandma was artistic, creative, straight A student with perfectionist tendancies. It sounded as though she was describing me to a T. I've always wondered where I got my artstic streak from, as I seem to be the most passionate about it in my family.

A mosaic my grandma made when she was 10. Toni gave it to my Dad. The only thing we have of my grandma's.

I can't help but wonder what it would have been like if my grandma had lived. I know she made some poor choices in her life, and nobody is perfect. But what would it have felt like if I was standing her in living room, looking at pictures of us on her walls? Would she have been involved in our lives? What could she have taught me? These are things I will never know. But I am so grateful to have met my Aunt Toni, and to have learned some things about my heritage.

Me & Aunt Toni

Creatively Chic...and a little crazy