Aunt Verna

Aunt Verna isn’t technically my aunt.

She and her husband, Uncle Chris, were besties with my mom and dad since high school. Maybe even earlier than that.

Uncle Chris’s sister, Aunt Kathy, married my dad’s brother, Uncle Peter.

Uncle Peter was my dad’s youngest brother. He and my dad were really close – they worked at the same place for pretty much their whole adult lives, and Aunt Kathy and my mom have been close friends forever.

So the three couples, Mom and Dad (better know as Grammy and Papa), Uncle Peter and Aunt Kathy, and Aunt Verna and Uncle Chris have been friends forever.

Aunt Verna and Uncle Chris had a daughter a few months before I was born. Her name is Cheryl.

She was my very first friend. She’s the first person I ever went ice skating with.

Her birthday was the first birthday party I ever went to.

That’s Cheryl looking at the camera and Aunt Verna standing behind her. And that’s the back of my head in the lower right hand corner.

My parents are Cheryl’s godparents.

Our families spent a lot of time together when we were kids.

I used to go over to Aunt Verna’s house quite a bit when I was younger.

Aunt Verna was also a Sunday School teacher at our church, so even when we moved to a different house in a neighboring town and Cheryl and I started going to different schools, I still saw her and Aunt Verna every Sunday.

I still have Christmas ornaments I made with her in Sunday School almost fifty years ago.

As often happens when kids grow older and go to different schools, Cheryl and I saw less and less of each other and I saw less and less of Aunt Verna.

But I still probably saw her once a year or so.

I saw her at family get togethers. That’s her in the blue.

And I saw her at parties.

That’s her holding a plate and aluminum mug. (And Papa holding a tiny little baby Kristofer).

A week or so before this past Christmas my mom came by the house with a huge hibiscus plant in a big pot.

My mom told me Aunt Verna was making room for other plants. She told me she was going to give Aunt Verna some of her clippings to start some new plants.

Knowing I love plants, my mom brought the hibiscus to me. It’s in the dining room where I can see it all the time.

A couple weeks after the hibiscus arrived, Aunt Verna learned she had cancer. This came out of nowhere.

The cancer was pretty advanced. 

On January 30, 2023, Aunt Verna passed away.

It happened so quickly. You just never know.

But maybe, somewhere, Aunt Verna knew something.

Aunt Verna had a very strong faith.

Maybe she wasn’t actually making room for new plants.

Maybe she felt called to give the hibiscus to my mom for whatever reason.

Maybe it was a coincidence.

Maybe it wasn’t.

No one will ever know for sure.

Aunt Verna was the BEST about sending Christmas cards. 

Every year, without fail, she sent a card to me, and every year it had a personalized note inside.

Maybe Aunt Verna somehow knew this past Christmas would be the last Christmas she’d send out a note to me.

Today the hibiscus is blooming.

Maybe it’s a coincidence that the hibiscus made its way into my dining room.

But I don’t think so.

I think that hibiscus bloom is Aunt Verna.

And I think she’s checking in and saying hi.