Oh! To be an aunt! What a wonderful thing it is. My son loves his aunts. He has lots of them and he loves each one of them a great deal. A lot. So much that it’s impossible to gauge his sadness when one of them leaves. This year alone two of his aunts went off to college. This was in some ways a terrible thing. We’d been away for a number of years and our son hadn’t had a lot of time to spend with his aunts. The summer was full of fun times to be spent with them, and our son enjoyed finally spending a great deal of time with his aunts. Summer soon faded into Autumn, and his new best friends were headed to different states to get some “learning.” They left and our son asked about them for a couple of weeks. He missed them. Soon they sort of faded from his memory (but pictures would bring them back). Then, finally, one of them came back.
This past week we were able to see a returning aunt — who went far away to college — and reconnect her with her nephew. Our son was immediately pleased to see her and referred to her by name. Big hugs ensued. Many smiles and happy times were bound to be in the future. Our son was able to play with his “long lost” aunt for a great deal of time, and she was kind enough to do the things he wanted. Playing with putty and blocks and trucks and drums. They also played with tops and cups and apples and plates. It was a fun time for everyone, but especially for our son and his aunt. Far from being forgotten, they picked up their friendship as if they had been playing together just the day before. A year ago I’m not sure our son would have had that good of a memory of the people he’d met. Now I know he does.