My Aunt Nell
I went to my Aunt Nell’s funeral today. It was so sad and hard to see her in her casket. The person there did not really look like her. I remember the feisty Nell who used to come to visit from California with my Uncle Ralph and Cousin Linda. Someone still and quiet is not my memory of Aunt Nell and it never will be. I barely remember when she came driving in to my parents’ driveway in her Pink Cadillac. Yes she had one, she sure did. I wasn’t ever real sure if it was a Cadillac or a Continental since my uncle worked with and sold Ford Mercury products like Continentals, but today my parents said it was a Cadillac. And Nell deserved to be one of those people who drove a Pink Cadillac. I have no doubt about that. Her hearse today was blue. It is the first blue hearse I ever saw and I am glad. Nell would have never deserved to be in a black hearse because she was much too colorful of a person. The casket my Cousin Linda picked out for her perfectly reflected the colorfulness of Nell as well.
I remember how alive Nell always was. I remember way back when I was just a little kid her and my mother out in the car singing Harper Valley PTA. I remember Nell trying to sing like Loretta Lynn too. It seems so long ago in a way and yet sometimes it seems like it was not that long ago really. I have memories of when they were all in their prime going out and having a good time on Saturday nights. It is hard for me to remember the places names and dates, but I remember it all somewhere in my mind. I will always remember my Aunt Nell. She was a very special person.