Remembering

My great aunt, Mary Grace Bryan, was born on March 4, 1900.  She never married but was a mother figure to many a child.  My father's father died when he was about 10.  Aunt Mary moved in with her sister Bessie to help her manage the father-less family.  As far as I can remember they lived together from that moment on- until my grandmother was moved to a nursing home to live out the final days of her life.

My first memories of Aunt Mary involve an apartment that she shared with her sister.  I remember spending the night there as a young child of six or seven but don't recall much else.  The only other memory I have of that apartment is hearing that my grandmother had suffered a stroke one night.  My young mind, unable to process what all that meant, was afraid.  I feared that a toy I left out caused my grandmother to fall and suffer the stroke.  

After the stroke Mary and Bessie moved in with my family. The role of caregiver had switched to the younger generation. They had their own place on the lower level of our split-level house.  Aunt Mary had a bedroom of her own down the hall from me but she never slept there.  She preferred to sleep on a pullout sofa a few feet from her sister's in-house hospital bed.  


Aunt Mary took care of us when my parents went out.  She used phrases like "stop that rough housing."  She made the best tuna salad I've ever had and ate Special K for breakfast every day.  Aunt Mary taught me how to make hot tea with milk and sugar.  She also made us Cream of Wheat on chilly winter mornings.  To this day I can't make that grainy little breakfast food without picturing her standing over a stove on a cold winter morning slowly stirring as the food came to a boil.