Yesterday my ex’s Aunt was on my mind. All day I kept thinking of her. I didn’t know where I put her address or phone number, so figured I’d try and hunt it down in a day or two. I woke up this morning and she was still on my mind very strongly.

I’m doing spring cleaning right now and was going through a box of papers, odds and ends, pitching this and that. Suddenly, a card was lying there with her address on it. I opened the card and there was her phone number.

I dialed the number and got a recording, so I left a message.

Tonight I was on my computer and suddenly I got knocked off line (which hardly ever happens) and my phone began ringing. It was she. The first words out of her mouth was, “I need to talk to you so badly,” and then she started crying.

She buried her husband this past weekend. She kept telling me she couldn’t find my address or phone number, couldn’t recall where she’d put it. I told her that was odd, because she was on my mind for two days and I didn’t remember where I’d put her address either.

This Aunt, though she’s no blood relative to me, has always meant a lot to me. She used to tell me she wished I were the blood niece and her nephew the other side. For years we enjoyed so many things together, and her hubby was a gem of a man. He used to love calliope music and I used to buy him tapes of it all the time.

A beautiful person this lady is. Simply beautiful. They had a wonderful marriage, and no one could miss the look of love in their eyes when they were together. I believe if any marriage was “made in heaven”, theirs was.

I felt so bad when she told me Uncle Bruce had died. I knew the years they had together, over 50 of them and I’ve shared many anniversaries with them many years ago. She said, “What am I going to do without him?” I told her I understood losing someone you love, and she said, “Yes, you know.”

I felt so badly for her, for I know she depended on Uncle Bruce for so much. She told me last night the doorknob stuck and she couldn’t get the door closed and she just sat down and cried, knowing had Uncle Bruce been here, he’d have fixed it. I asked if she had friends near her, good friends and she said yes, she had wonderful neighbors.

I took her back in time to some crazy things we did when I was married to her nephew and she laughed, and if felt so good to hear her laugh. And then she said, “You know, God works in miracles every day and today he made one for me.” I said, “What miracle is that?” She said, “For you to call. I’ve needed to talk to you for the past week and couldn’t find your phone number, I wanted to tell you about Uncle Bruce. You were always our favorite niece and he loved you so much, as much as I do.”

I told her my memories of him and her long ago are all so fond and I knew she had decades of memories to keep of their life together. She started crying and said, “I love him so much.” I said, “I know.” And then I reminded her of a time we went on a spy hunt trying to catch someone up to no good, and how she drove and I used the binoculars, and she started laughing and said, “Yep, and we borrowed the neighbor’s car to do it with too!”

On and on, remembering……like when I said, “Remember when Pepe (her poodle) jumped through the kitchen window because the dog next door was in heat.” She laughed and said, “Yeah, and he tore the curtains up in the bedroom, broke the window out in there, busted the frame on the kitchen window……all for another dog and she wasn’t even a Poodle!” We laughed and laughed.

Then I said, “You still eat candy?” She said, “I sure do.” I said, “Well, what’s your favorite?” “Anything with pecans or peanut butter” she said. I replied, “Well watch your mailbox in the next 2-3 days………a box is coming.” She said, “Just like always with you, always buying me something and surprising me like you used to do for me and my mom.”

I thought the world of her mom too.

So tomorrow a box of chocolates will be going out to someone who is 80 years old and that I care very much for. I know it won’t take away her pain. I know it’s going to make her cry. But I also know she will still know how much I love her.

God seemed to know she needed me today. I think He placed that card in just the right place, don’t you?

Sharon Bryant 1946@bellsouth.net