My Dad's baby sister, Charlene seemed so much older.
I now realize she was only seven years older than I am.
When I was ten, she would take me to the cafe to get a Coke.
Charlene only sipped and never finished the drink.
She talked and told stories the entire time.
She'd get so tickled as she told me stories of her life.
I was too young to understand the funny parts of her stories.
I quickly drank my Coke and thought we should leave.
I was too young to understand the art of conversing at leisure.
Our lives took different directions.
We never made time to visit over a Coke.
I would have understood her stories if we had.
She would have listened to my stories of life.
The last morning she read her birthday cards.
Her husband fixed lunch and they took an afternoon nap.
Charlene could not be awakened.
She passed on her birthday.
Her husband said recently she had cut back to only one Coke a day.
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We can all relate to the "never made time" in one relationship or another. I love the use of the Coke through different phases of her life.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I am trying to accept that as I mourn Charlene. I thought it was unusual when I talked with him of my memories of Aunt Charlene and he told me about her cutting back. The social time around a Coke never left her.
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