Oh my goodness, time has flown since I last posted here. We need to catch up.

Thursday night I got back from my aunt's funeral in southwest Colorado. I figured it would be an opportunity to see her five children and her grandchildren.

But no, there is a lot of dissension in that family, so the only children who were there were the two oldest brothers and the youngest sister, who lives in the deceased lady's house. Only one grandson came from out of town, and the only other grandchildren were the three who lived there.

The bad feelings extend to one of the local aunts, who was my mother's high school friend. She is a horrible gossip and troublemaker, has been known to call people and disguise her voice, pretending to be someone else to make trouble. Yes, this was irritating to her relatives, but it's the exact thing my mother would do if she was still alive, so I don't see it as all that horrible, it's what makes that person special. Her name is Lorna, and I call her Auntie Lorna although she isn't really my aunt, she's an aunt-in-law.



After the cemetery some of us were invited to the family home 'because Joanne is fixing a turkey.' So we all piled into our cars and headed for town. But when I got there, I realized I had forgotten where the family home is, which particular alley it is down, because it's been 25 years since I've been there. I didn't see any of the other family members headed there, so I wandered around that tiny own looking where I thought that house was.

Finally, I called my Uncle Robert and told him I couldn't find Aunt Mamie's house, so I was just going to go straight out to see him. He told me to turn left at the old railroad car and go half a block. So I drove back and forth on the main street looking for that boxcar, but could not find it. Well, now there was no way I could go tell Uncle Robert I couldn't find the boxcar, his scorn would be thick.

So I went to Auntie Lorna's house and asked her. But I was aware that I was talking to the enemy of the people whose house I was going to, so it had to be a secret. Auntie Lorna drew me a map and her directions included: "here is the Jones's old house, you turn there." Mind you, I have no idea who the Jones's are or where they used to live, but I didn't quibble, just hoped for the best. I was only there about 10 minutes, but Auntie caught me up on all the rumors and grievances in that dysfunctional family in that short time.

Finally, I did find the house, and I felt so guilty - were they going to wonder where I was all that time? Would they figure out I'd been to see Auntie? Heck no, they were all working on the turkey dinner and it took another hour and a half to get it on the table.

P.S. Come to find out, the old train car landmark isn't there any more. When I told Uncle Robert, we had a good laugh.