Goodbye, Aunt Louie...

I wasn’t expecting to hear that you’d gone.  I guess I just thought, you’d always be there.  It’s been so long since I’d seen you.  I always enjoyed when you visited.  You never changed.  In all my years, every time I saw you, you sounded, looked and acted the same.  Always very soft spoken, always cheerful and happy, always looking to have fun, always calm and rational, and always the same hair-do.  : )  You were a woman of many talents.  Very tough woman. Raised a family, worked a full time job and could tear a carburetor apart and put it back together with your eyes closed. My daughter was fascinated by the stories she heard of Aunt Louie and wanted so much to meet you.  She met you when she was an infant, but she doesn’t remember you at all.  And that breaks my heart.  She should have known you.  She would have loved you.  Everybody did.  My grandfather always spoke fondly of his sister Lois, better known as “Louie”.  You always seemed to enjoy the time with your family.  And you kept Mom entertained with your weekly telephone calls chalk full of gossip and funny stories.  Whatever will Mom do now?  What will any of us do without our Aunt Louie?  Keep you in our memories and hearts, there you will be alive forever, beaming that Louie smile.  Now you can be with your parents, your brothers and sister that you missed so much.  It’s time for us to let you go.  You’ve earned your journey to Heaven.  Thank you for being who you were.  You will be greatly missed, crying as I write this.  I can see you now, sitting with them, all of them, catching up, just as it should be.  Goodbye Aunt Louie.  You will not be forgotten.  Goodbye, Aunt Louie. Goodbye. XOXO