40 Diamonds for 40: Awesome Aunties, Aunt Ruby

Part of the reason I love being an auntie is because of the influence of my great-aunts, the sisters of my maternal grandmother. For the first eight years of my life, while she was across the country in North Carolina, three of Grandma Ollie's sisters lived in the same town in Utah where I was born. There were family gatherings, phone calls, etc. where they stood in loco parentis et grandparentis.

While I was younger I didn't know Aunt Ruby as well. She had a crazy busy large family, and I was just trying to deal with my own siblings. It's only on the more recent visits, both for grandma's hospitalization and then later funeral in NC, and then many trips back to Utah, that I've really got to see how certain of my mother's characteristics are a genetic legacy. That Auntie Ruby. She's a PIP!

l-r: Uncle Gordon*, Grandma Ollie, Aunt Ruby*, Aunt Shirley**, and Aunt Dorothy, with Uncle Preston** on the floor (* spouses)

Aunt Shirley may be the only one who I'll let call me by a nickname, but that doesn't mean that her sister won't try to tease me too.

Dear [Auntie Nettie],

But who’s to say a bug is cute? We often hear of the ugly bug, potato bug, lady bug, tobacco bug oops! They are worms. Flu bug – enough already!

I admire our [Nettie] and love to see her interact with her Mom.

Your formal education and vocation are commendable.

You deserve congrats!

With love and best wishes,

Auntie Ruby

P.S. The pictures are a few we thought might fit someplace – although some are of your mother as a child and some maybe cousins, that visited.

Trust you’ll enjoy them and know the difference.