#139 - Aunt Pete

I had the privledge of getting to know my great aunt before she passed away.  We called her Aunt Pete.  I'm pretty sure her name was not Pete, in fact, I think it was Velma.  How we got Aunt Pete, I really don't know.  Can anyone help me on this?  Dad, Sarah, Mom ???  Anyway, I loved her very much.  She was my paternal grandmother's sister.  I can remember that for last several years of my great grandmother's life, she lived with my grandmother.  Aunt Pete use to come down to stay from time to time, to help take care of her.  I'm sure she was not always as little as I remember her being, but as far back as I can remember, she was little.  She also had severe thoracic kyphosis which caused her upper back to stay in a forward flexed position and she had to really extend her neck to be able to look up.  Once I became a PT, she would ask me, "Honey, what can I do for my back?"  I would try to show her some stretches because I didn't have the heart to tell her she would have had to start them 30 years prior in order to make a difference.

When my sister and I were little and we would spend the night at my grandmother's house, we would love it when Aunt Pete was there for several reasons.
1.  She was a great audience for the many hours of plays, dance performances, and acting scenes we would entertain them with.
2.  She always brought her own food and kept it separate from the food in my grandparent's pantry.  Her food was always the good stuff including Chee-toes, Pringles, and chocolate.
3.  She was always cleaning up after us which as a child rocked!  She was always washing dishes and folding towels and clothes before anyone could remind us to do it.

I look at my children's great-aunts and they seem so young to me.  I'm sure Aunt Pete was young once, but I will always remember her as my sweet old aunt.