happy birthday, niknak

Aunts are a big deal. Most people have several. Our family is small, and she's been the only aunt I've had that lived near me and saw me on a regular basis. And where I come from, people die young. Every birthday is, frankly, a big damned deal. 

My aunt just had a birthday. And I'm so glad she was born. 

I've learned a lot from my aunt about marriage. She treats all of us as her blood family - we're not, mind you, but when she said "I do" to my uncle, she agreed to treat his mom as hers, his sister as hers, his nieces and nephews as hers. When I look around, I see how rarely that is accomplished - an in-law, dropping the "in-law" part and just embracing family as family. 

She's a fighter, my aunt. She and my uncle lost her first born to leukemia, but she is still a woman of courage and faith and strength. 

I remember her letting me hold him as a newborn, (sure, I was sitting on a cushy couch and not walking around with him) but still, there I was, 8 years old, trusted to hold a newborn by his mom. Everyone needs an aunt like her, for so many reasons.  

She has a big laugh, one that's contagious, and she tells great stories about my dad. 

I love the story of the time we were all in Port Aransas for a holiday weekend, and Nikki caught a seagull with her fish hook. My uncle had to put it in a bucket, if I remember correctly, and get the hook out of it somehow. 

My aunt makes family gatherings fun, she likes to bake rolls with the wrapper still on, she refuses to lose in card games, she's really good at math, she puts up with my uncle and oh lord, she puts up with my grandmother. 

Sometimes we just let birthdays go by and it's just another day. But like I said, where I come from, people don't have unlimited birthdays. So everytime that day rolls around, I think we need to stop and say OH HEYYYY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! Glad you were born! Hope you keep breathin' for a while!