"Only An Aunt........

......... can give hugs like a mother........

Of all my aunts, Dad's sister Leona was my favourite.

.........Keep secrets like a sister........

Leona was six and a half years younger than Mom. She didn't have an older sister. She would have, but her sister, Evelyn Lois, died three days after birth - two years before Leona was born. So, Mom became her big sister when she and Dad married. Here Mom is 18 and Leona is almost 12. Her birthday was the same day, June 19, as Mom's sister, Lois. Mom also had a sister named Evelyn. I always thought the names and birthday coincidences confirmed that Mom and Leona were meant to be sisters, too.

.........And share love like a friend."

Aunt Leona was one of those people who got along with everyone. Here she and Bud are having a good chat on the deck of her 'second home' in Punkin Center (Tonto Basin) in '93. My Aunt and Uncle and kids moved to Arizona in 1959, so there were many, many years we didn't them. They didn't come back often and we never went down there. Letters now and then and rare phone calls were the only connections.
But when they still lived in Corning, Aunt Leona was the one I turned to for a second opinion or advice on something I was too afraid to ask my Mom about. I knew she would give me a straight answer and not tell Mom if it was something I didn't want known.
I can remember one time asking her if she thought I was fat. Her reply: "Well, do your thighs rub together when you walk?" I said I didn't think so. "Then you're not fat," she replied. I've never forgotten that.

The spring of 1978 was a tough time for all of us. Aunt Leona's husband of thirty-five years, Al, died in April. The middle of May she brought his ashes back for a funeral service and burial. She only stayed a few days before going back to Arizona. She had just gotten home when Mom called her with the news that Dad had died. She turned around and made a quick trip back to Iowa for her brother's funeral. Her daughter Georgia and granddaughters, Heather and Jennifer made the trip with her.
This picture is of Leona and Georgia standing in the barn doorway. Georgia wanted to go through the barn she remembered playing in as a young girl. After Aunt Leona retired and remarried, they began coming back to Iowa for part of each summer. It was good becoming reacquainted with her. It was like all those years apart had never happened. The talking and close feelings were still there.

For Mom's 80th birthday, we all chipped in and bought her a plane ticket to fly to Phoenix. It was Mom's first trip in a jet airliner. She loved it - wasn't a bit apprehensive. This picture with the lemon tree was taken in Aunt Leona's back yard in Glendale. Except for the height difference, these two look just like the sisters they became in 1937.

We spent one day wandering around the old downtown area of Glendale. A walking tour highlights the town's origins as the trading area for the rural farming community it once was. This bronze sculpture, Old Friends, created by George Lundeen, greets visitors to Murphy Park and Velma Teague Library. Many of the original buildings are now antique shoppes. It is an area I would enjoy visiting again someday - perhaps with my niece, Lorrie, who now lives in nearby Peoria.

My beloved Aunt Leona died ten years ago today. She had just gotten a computer and was learning to e-mail. I was so looking forward to having that instant communication with her at a time in my life when I needed her most.

"Only an Aunt can give hugs like a mother, keep secrets like a sister and share Love like a friend."