My Angel

I dedicate this picture to my great-aunt Catherine. She's always been there looking out for my family and is an inspiration to me. She died several years ago at the age of 101 (though she nearly made it to 102). Dad says that I look a lot like she did when she was younger. When my grandmother died from lung cancer, my aunt Janet blamed my dad and turned great-aunt Catherine against us. And then I was born and she decided she didn't want to be angry at the rest of the family anymore. Aunt Catherine did some really cool things when she was young; in 1930, she and her husband Chad made a cross-country trip all the way from D. C. to California in some dinky little old-time car with neither seat-belts nor air-conditioning. She and my grandmother used to go horseback riding with President Hoover's wife.

On her 101st birthday, even though she was almost completely blind and had limited mobility, she went out dancing. She survived neglect at the hospital when she had passed out from dehydration. She drank three glasses of whiskey every day; she had a very high tolerance, probably because she was Irish. Whenever someone rang the doorbell of her apartment, she would say "Com-ing" in a little sing-song voice that always made me feel welcome. When looking through some of her old records, my dad and I found that she wrote poetry and designed fashion; it was a side of her we never knew about.

My great-aunt was like the grandmother I didn't get to know, just like how she was like a second mother to my dad. I am sorry I never got enough time to tell her how much I loved her.

I made this image with Azaleasdolls Dark Fairy Maker.