Aunt Verda

Saturday was the funeral for my Aunt Verda. Well, technically she was my great aunt. I was very blessed to have a grandmother who placed an incredibly high value on family and she made sure I knew her family. As a child, we spent summers at family reunions and visiting relatives in their homes. She didn't want me to just be acquainted with her family, she wanted me to know her family. To her, if two people were related, even distantly, they not only needed to know of each other, they needed to become well acquainted. I thought that this was completely normal and that every kid knew who their grandmother's brothers and sisters were. Now I realize how uncommon my experience was. But, I feel very blessed to have been able to know my extended relatives.

At our wedding. Aunt Verda is in the front with the pink dress on. Next to her is my grandma.

On March 3, at the incredible age of 91, my Aunt Verda passed away. She was one of my very favorite extended relatives. Probably a lot of that is because she was my grandma's absolute favorite sister.

 In April 2005. My mom and I took Bria to see Aunt Verda.

I wanted to take a minute and write down some of my memories of her. I visited her many, many times growing up. We would spend the summers with my grandparents in Salt Lake City and my grandma would bring us to visit Aunt Verda in Blackfoot nearly ever summer. If you've ever wondered why this big city girl come to be such a country-loving, small town Idahoan, this is why. I loved it here and looked forward to visiting Aunt Verda. She lived nearly her whole adult life in the same house her and her husband built.  She had an enormous garden in her back yard that she pretty much kept immaculate. Every time we visited, she made homemade sourdough waffles for breakfast. At one of these breakfasts, she taught me how to make perfect sunny-side up eggs. I think of her every time I make one.

Aunt Verda was a really spunky old lady. She wasn't afraid to tell you what she thought and was always full of energy. On one visit, she let my grandma sleep in her bedroom with her. My grandma was a terrible snorer and she kept Aunt Verda up all night with her snoring. In the morning, Aunt Verda was terribly mad at my grandma, and understandably so. What surprised me is that she wasn't mad at my grandma for keeping her awake, she was made that my grandma woke her up from her dream. She was dreaming about James, she said. And it was wonderful and she didn't want to be woken up from it. James was her husband. He died in the early seventies, so Aunt Verda was away from him for a very long time. She really loved her husband.

When I was in college, we stopped on our way through to visit her. She asked if my apartment had a TV. I told her no, we didn't. So, she sent us with the TV in her spare bedroom. We were so excited to finally have a TV to watch! It was a pretty old TV, but we didn't realize just how old until we plugged it in and found out it was black and white. We were a little disappointed, but still very happy to have a TV. Well, almost a year later, the TV finally started going out. We had a great run, but it was an old TV. One of us decided to try a good old-fashioned bang to the side of the TV to see if we could get it to work. Not only did the TV continue to work, but we found out that it was actually a color TV all along!

Aunt Verda always treated everyone with such love! She was a true mother and grandmother to all who knew her. After my grandpa died, she warmly welcomed my grandma to come live with her. She wasn't there very long, but when she got suddenly sick, Aunt Verda was there to take care of her until she died. I'm very greatful that my grandma had someone she loved so much to help take care of her.

I'm really going to miss my Aunt Verda. But, I do know that she is so thrilled to be back with her dear husband that she loved and missed so much!