In My Head: Dearest Isabella, Part 4

p> Evelyn Louise Sheldon: My wonderful Aunt Evelyn! Isabella, she was your Grandma Beryldine’s only sister and would be your great, great aunt. She also had beautiful dishes, perfect posture and great style. I used to watch her paint her fingernails with red fingernail polish and she wore Chanel No. 5 perfume. She was elegant and my Mom wanted me to grow up and be like Aunt Evelyn. She said that Aunt Evelyn didn’t know how to do stuff at home when she was young but became the best housekeeper and cook after she got married. I am not sure if there is a time limit on when those housekeeping talents will appear. I am still waiting! Mother used to talk about how they didn’t go to the USO during the war (World War II, a terrible time that your great grandparents lived through and something that I pray that you will NEVER have to experience!), the USO came to them because Aunt Evelyn could jitterbug so well. She was beautiful! My only girl cousin, Mollie, and I used to spend lots of weekends and Summer vacations together. I had been begging my mother to let me “frost” my hair to no avail. One Summer while I was visiting them in San Angelo, Aunt Evelyn let me put lemon juice on my hair to bleach it out. I was sure that I was a lot blonder! She and Mother didn’t ever make Mollie and me do the dishes and they didn’t even get mad when Mollie and I (or it might have just been me) opened a box of marbles during the church service and the marbles hit the sloped concrete floor and rolled all the way to the front of the sanctuary. The preacher thanked us for waking up the folks that were sleeping. What was I doing with marbles in church? She gave me a wonderful bridesmaid’s luncheon at the Amarillo Country Club the day of my wedding and it was as elegant as everything else that she did! But don’t be confused! Aunt Evelyn WAS NOT just a person of beauty and style but no substance. She was involved in her community and church and a leader in all in which she was involved. She never met a stranger and was outgoing and friendly and inviting to all. Coach says that when we began dating and he first became involved with my family, he was a little shy and uncomfortable but Aunt Evelyn always made him feel special and welcome. She treated him as family, right from the beginning. As you grow a little older and get to know your cousin Jack, you will see these leadership and friendliness traits in him. He often talks about his family. I wonder if Aunt Evelyn is coaching him. My beautiful Aunt Evelyn died just a few days before your Mom and Dad’s wedding and I will forever be disappointed that she was not there to share that wonderful day with us. But, I am sure that she was looking down from heaven and smiling with approval at how beautiful the wedding was! Grandma Beryldine often can’t remember that Aunt Evelyn has died and she asks about her. I don’t have the heart to remind her that Aunt Evelyn is no longer here. Grandma Beryldine sometimes introduces me as her sister. I just smile and relish in the compliment. Maybe I’m turning out like Aunt Evelyn after all.