Wednesday, January 20, 2021
A memory that recurs to me often is one when I was a child, likely age 6, maybe 7 years old. My Aunt Carrie and her children, Terry, Peter, Penny, Raymond, and Tommy visited our home in Red Head, my sister Janet and my brother Willy was there too, although Willy was almost and adult by then. It was winter and the children played outside. Aunt Carrie, and my mother (Hazel), planned a special treat for all of us that day. They used the abundance of snow, some rock salt that we had in the basement, a large metal wash tub, a smaller metal cookie jar, some strawberry preserves, and milk. When the snowball fight was over they served the children home made ice cream. Aunt Carrie was a regular visitor to our home, that was because my mother and Aunt Carrie were so close, they shared everything and supported each other to live their separate lives.
To end my remembrance of my wonderful Aunt Carrie on a humourous note, she had a great sense of humour and loved to laugh. A story that she enjoyed recounting was about my mother. It was in the late '70's and we were getting cable TV for the first time. Dad was at work and Aunt Carrie was visiting mom with my aunt Lorna when the Cable Guy arrived. Aunt Carrie told me the story many times on how the Cable Guy repeatedly hit on my mother while he was completing the cable installation. Aunt Carrie told me that my mother was confused and oblivious to his advances and was completely confused about the whole process. Aunt Carrie told me that she just sat back, drank her tea, and watch the show as mom wanted basic cable and he was a bit more interested than that. Aunt Carrie described the event as two individuals have two completely different conversations with each other and the result was madness.
Aunt Carrie, I miss you deeply. I lost my mother a few years ago, and now I have lost my second mother. I will think of you when I sip my tea and think of you when I watch Coronation Street. Please rest now, I look forward to seeing you again when we will all be together.
Tim Randles
