Story-a-Day

Passin Through

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A Visit From Aunt Martha

When Uncle Rodney decided to get married at the ripe old of age of 34, he opened a family can of worms. Aunt Martha, my grandfather's sister was the family eccentric. Prone to sudden visions and extreme enthusiasims, stability was not her forte. Naturally Grandpa wanted his sister to share in the festivities. But in a previous phase of her life, Aunt Martha had wore out her welcome with Grandma. Grandma would not spend a night under the same roof with "that woman". Grandma's solution was to give her spare bed to the newlyweds. Besides someone would have to bring Aunt Martha since she was in the in her late seventies and didn't feel up to making the 6 hour drive. Aunt Martha's children had fled the nest and seldom returned. My mother decided that she could host Aunt Martha and enlisted her children's aid to make it happen. My sister and I were living together at the university. Aunt Martha lived an hour's drive south. We called Aunt Martha and extended our mother's invitation. Aunt Martha was delighted to accept. We made arrangements to meet her at our apartment on the appointed day. Due to different schedules, my sister and I were driving in separate cars. My sister was leaving first so she took Aunt Martha with her. As soon as they had gotten underway Aunt Martha launched into a detailed description of her wedding night of her first marriage, (Aunt Martha had been married 5 times). It seemed the upcoming wedding had awakened old memories. It was a long drive home for my sister. My mother had put Aunt Martha upstairs in the Swamp, the large loft bedroom that my 2 sisters and I shared. Aunt Martha slept in my bed and I slept on the couch downstairs. Since older bladders can be weak and the stairs were steep my mother furnished Aunt Martha with a chamber pot, a gallon glass jar. My sisters later reported that it was rather disconcerting to hear tinkling in the jar, but even more disconcerting to wake up with Aunt Martha in your face as she was admiring your long dark eyelashes. This visit provided plenty of fodder for the family folklore and Aunt Martha fondly remembered her visit to our home until her dying day.

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Story-a-Day is an attempt to bring a small bit of humor and amusement to Mrs. ~brb and Audrey as they fight very serious illnesses. If you have a short, amusing story, please send it to kersley.fitz at yahoo dot com. If you'd prefer, you can drop it in the drop.io (password: challenge) and email me to let me know it's there.