"I Miss You" by Cheyenne

My Great Aunt Mary died at Christmas time.  It was hard.  She was my grandpa's last living sibling out of the seven of them.  She was blind the last several years of her life and yet, still lived an amazing, full life.  Mid nineties and she died having lived every moment.  With her died a treasury of the Old Country.  Our Italian roots.  My grandpa of course still maintains a lot of the memories for us, but Aunt Mary, well she had the recipes.  For those of us that learned some of them, we are blessed and it is our duty to keep them intact, to pass along our rich, beautiful, and delicious ethnic history.   No doubt though, a lot of our Italian roots died with her.  But I digress.  Death and life are often a subject of contemplation.  And more often than not, with the death of a loved one comes the reminder of just how precious our lives are, and what is really important.  Hug your kids, tell your spouse you love him or her, call your parents and grandparents and great grandparents.  Listen to their stories and appreciate what life is.  And read a 12 year old's perspective here on the death of her great great aunt.

"It was snowing and the smell of coffee was in the air. I lazily swung my feet out of bed and wrapped myself in my fuzzy blanket. The hard floor was cold to my feet as I went to sit next to my grandma to read the Sunday adds. Then the phone rang and I looked up just in time to see my grandma's eyes.
I was sitting at the island in my grandma's kitchen eating my bowl of Rice Krispies when I heard the news. “Cheyenne,” my grandma said.  I could hear there was sadness in her voice. “Yea Mother” I replied with a questioning tone to my voice. “I have some bad news.”  Her voice got a little sadder.  “Oh no what happened?”  I was talking fast and my voice was starting to tremble. “Your Aunt Mary passed away in her sleep last night.”  I could feel the tears swelling up in my eyes and the hot ones rolling down my cheeks. When I finally really understood what happened, I started to think about the many fun times and good lunches we had over there.
The back seat of my great grandpa's car was not terribly comfortable but he had pillows back there. The back seat did bump a lot but that was okay. And it smelt like a grandpa's car should smell like. When we drove up her drive way and got out you could see the beautiful garden of roses. Oh there were soooooooooo many roses. My grandpa would ring the doorbell but then he would become impatient and just walk on in. Aunt Mary would offer us food.   My great grandpa would refuse, she would give it to anyway. (siblings☺) She would tell us “look at these skinny kids Steve, we need to put some meat on their bones.”   My grandpa would just grunt.
For lunch she would bring out all of her refrigerator. We would have pepperoni slices and crackers, olives, potato salad, jello ham,and cheese, milk, juice, water or sprite. Then for desert she would always have a bowl of chocolate waiting for us. Then we would go out back because something was wrong with her plants and she needed my grandpa to fix it. So we would go outside and spend about and hour out their looking at things then finally it was time to go home.
When my Aunt Mary died it really changed my life because I used to really dread going over there but now that that opportunity has been taken from me I want it more then ever. I used to take going over there for granted but now I realized that I had so much fun over there so I miss it now.
When someone dies in your family it usually changes your life. I sure know this family death changed my life. It was the first death I had really ever experienced and hopefully the last one. I want to give advice to the kids out there: if you go to an elderly persons house to visit but you dread going DON'T dread it, enjoy the time you have with them because one day that time will run out.

So here's to you Aunt Mary
I miss you sooooooo so so so so so so much, I would give anything in the world to have you back. I know I used to take going to your house for granted but forgive me please I had a wonderful time their every time I went. I love you sooo much and hope that you had an amazing life. Love, Cheyenne."