Aunt Marie

Today in my daily journal, I filled two pages with gratitude!  Gratitude that I had an Aunt in my life who brought us all so much joy.....

My mom Betty and Aunt Marie

My Aunt Marie, who's cabin I was staying at in Tahoe, passed away while I was on vacation.  Her family had a service for her on Sunday. Yes, she had a full life, and yes she was getting "on" in years, and yes she had been fighting cancer for the last year BUT she was so very young at heart.

She always had a smile on her face and always had a kind word of encouragement....It is such a loss for our entire family.

Aunt Marie lived life in the present and never had to read a book about how to do it.

The cabin being build

The cabin in 2011

Every summer both of our families, grandparents and sometimes more would come to my Grandparents little cabin in Tahoe. The dad's were expected to work on building the cabin most of the day and the mom's would cook, clean and take care of the kids. Most days we would entertain ourselves and fish across the street in Spring Creek, hike to the meadow or Indian Grinding Rock or visit a little local radio station and bug the announcer for free records.  Usually it was just rocks and sticks to play with, no TV, no electronics, no phone but lots of comic books to read!

Uncle Cliff & my brother Dave stuck in the "swamp"

Most days my mom and Aunt would pack a lunch and take us to Baldwin beach to swim, build in the sand, float on huge inner tubes, follow our older cousins to the swamp and watch the mail plane land in the lake every day right at noon.

(I spent hours at Baldwin Beach trying to capture lightening...can you see it?)

Some days a storm would gather overhead and the moms would herd us under a tree on the beach until it stopped raining (brilliant idea in a lightening storm!). I assume they had strict orders not to return with the kids to the cabin until late afternoon!

Aunt Marie was a 4th/5th grade school teacher.  It was in her heart.





So when we were in Tahoe, she usually had an activity planned for us.  We either constructed & decorated a tepee or did some hiking off the beaten path and usually got lost for awhile.  Some days we would rent horses for the day and bring them back to the cabin but all they seemed to be interested in was heading back to the stables.  The boys would chop wood and the girls helped with collecting pine cones and washing the dinner dishes.

Cousins - Georgeanne, Kari, Chris, Marietta, Patty & Cathy

But what ever we did, we had fun!  She made sure of that!!

Great Grandma Mary and Grandma Sophie with all 12 grandchildren

.....and Aunt Marie, you were a lovely inspiration to us all and you will be missed...

 Uncle Cliff, Chris, Aunt Marie, Patty, Me (check out those glasses!), Kari and my brother Dave

Every time I see an Aspen quake, I will think of you!

Alone with myself
The trees bend to caress me
The shade hugs my heart.
~Candy Polgar