I was six when I first met her. My soon to be stepdad's sister, even though it took til I was nine before he and my mom actually married.
I asked what I could do to help that first Thanksgiving, and she said that I could put the china back in the hutch. And then realized. She stood there in the doorway, watching and fretting, while I was perched on a dining room chair putting the china and crystal back in the appointed places. Her mother held her by the shoulders to keep her steady while they both watched me do that. I didn't break anything. It was the first time in my life that I was exposed to folks entirely different from what I knew.
She died this afternoon, after a long, awful experience with Alzheimer's disease. Lovely and graceful and kind.