The Gift

Before I was born, my mother's brother did me a very important favor by marrying my aunt. In the grand scheme of things, one of the greatest gifts you can receive is that married in aunt or uncle. It's a new verse to the song of a family. One that will shape you without a blood connection. I got really lucky. 

I think my first ideas about my Aunt Val revolved around my belief that she could make ANYTHING. She could make pottery and dollhouses. She could make cakes of many tiers with flowers on them that to my child's mind seem to just bloom in the icing. She could sew. 

I mean, honestly, that's an understatement. If you use the idea that some singers can SANG instead of just sing, my aunt could SEW. She could make wedding dresses. She could make all the other dresses needed for a wedding to happen, including her own. When we were little and all obsessed with the musical Annie, she made all of us Annie Dresses. And yes, she made one for me too.

My Aunt Val always included me. She bought me my Cabbage Patch Doll, a magical moment in my little kid life. My Annie dress included the white socks with the lace trim and black Mary Janes. I've loved Mary Janes ever since. 

My aunt could design houses. She could design rooms. She would walk into a house and see the potential for what it could be and then she'd work to make that happen. In the latest house she and my uncle lived in, she designed herself an amazing sewing room, the kind of room that any crafter would look at and feel a kind of holiness about it. Her sewing table is a monument to the craft. It is big and wide enough to do everything she needed doing. It is the most practical and, at the same time, astonishing sewing room I've ever seen. Best part? In her later years, she decided to learn how to work an embroidery machine, marrying the tech of what was going on around her with old school embroidery skills. She digitized a piece for my grandmother that showed the old house my grandparents raised their children in and the house they lived in when they were older. 

If you can't tell, I am in awe of this woman's skills with fiber arts. I think one of the proudest moments of my life was when she accepted the one-and-only quilt I'd ever made (a gift for my grandmother) as her own after my grandmother passed. 

Val was opinionated. She was firm in what she believed and she would tell you about it. I wouldn't say we were always in agreement, but I admired her passion and sincerity. She gave me a lot of advice. I didn't take as much of it as I should have. 

And see this is the awesome thing about how the gift of loving people works. When she got ill and as it became clear that things wouldn't get better, something inside me shut down. Or, I guess, maybe it's better to say something inside me shut off. 

I couldn't narrate my videos. I would try. I would look at my scripts and look at my mic and nothing would come out. I could talk all the rest of the time, but my, well, Youtuber Voice, was gone. 

I knew I still needed to put out content. The last thing my aunt would have wanted would be for me to stop being productive, you know, such as it is. With that in mind, I decided to use some robot voices to handle my narration. This lead to me inventing some caustic robot characters, which very soon after lead to a whole new series. 

So my aunt's legacy, which is massive, now includes not only five children, tons of emotionally fostered lost souls, a multitude of beautiful grandchildren, countless rescued and loved animals, a niece who counts her as a creative inspiration......and three robot characters who complain about humans on YouTube. I'm sure that last bit was something she never would have expected, but I hope it would have amused her. 

We should honor those who pass. When you inspire a young kid to be creative, you are honoring my aunt. When you make a kid feel included, you are honoring my aunt. When you make sure you include the space and organization tools needed to create the things you need to create, you honor my aunt. When you shelter the lost animals and lost folks in your home and your heart, you honor my aunt. 

My aunt was a great gift to the world and a great gift to me. I'll miss her.