Ode to Aunt Marian

Everyone has a “fun” relative, Aunt Marian was mine. She was married to my grandmother’s brother, Russell. I always felt like I had three sets of grandparents. They had five children, the two youngest were still living at home when I started spending weekends with my cousin Lisa, the oldest child of Aunt Marian‘s oldest son. Their daughter, Angela, would come home from MSU on weekends and have girl time with us. When we were young Aunt Marian always had toys on the side porch room for us to play with. She always made sure you picked up after yourself before you left and she always checked to make sure it passed inspection. In the summer when it was hot and we started getting on her nerves she would send us all out to the swimming hole. It was a pond in the woods, back through a field, with a rope swing. I know how much this dates me, but I know you wish you had been there too. Perhaps this is where my love of water originated from.

Aunt Marian was a lady, with a bit of farm mom attitude. She would curl and put up our hair like we were princesses. She always had every color of nail polish possible, and she insisted we walk tall with our heads up. She made sure we apologized for belching while watching television with the whole family, even when she knew it was either Uncle Steve or Dan, just because ladies don’t do that. She was the lady in the country that pierced ears with an ice cube and needle before ear piercings were cool. She had us help Uncle Russell in the garden so that we could get rides on his lap on the tractor when we were done. She would also send us out to Dan’s fort in the woods even though she knew it had snakes living it in, because we needed the exercise before dinner.

The family picnics were always at her house and she always had the best stuff going on in the kitchen. It was a big kitchen, long before they were popular. Ten people could easily cook in her kitchen. You would walk in and she would immediately put you to work, thanks to many hands it was always done on time. It was a traditional farm family. The women were inside cooking and all the men were outside around the barbeque. After the meal, and a short rest, everyone would take a walk through the fields. Uncle Russell always mowed a path and all the couples would walk hand-in-hand with us kids running up ahead. She was a bold lady, she spoke the truth in a direct and matter-of-fact way. She gave you some rope to run, but she was never afraid of yanking your chain. Lisa and I would spend hours at night talking in bed at the top of the stairs, until she told us to be quiet. Then all we could do is look at each other and giggle into our pillows. We longed for the time we were old enough to partake in the family card games. It seemed like twenty people fit around that kitchen table and the card games went on forever. I think that is where my love of family games comes from. There were jokes, friendly lessons, and “suggested” rules of behavior that went on around that table once you were old enough to join and you always knew you were loved.

My Aunt Marian was also a lady of God and she knew kids well. Uncle Russell and Aunt Marian attended a little, white, country church. She would dress us up, do our hair, tell us to listen and be quiet. Then she would give us each a little purse filled with cinnamon red candies, enough to make it through the service, and pennies to put in the offering. After the service Aunt Marian taught Sunday School and we were part of her class. I don’t remember the specific lessons now, part I do remember there was always an art project that made me think church was really fun.

She loved her kids, my Uncle Russell and all of her grandchildren. She took care of them like a mother hen, but she always believed in having fun. I learned a lot about relationships from her and how to play. The times I spent with her have impacted everyday of my life. My Aunt Marian died yesterday at the age of 92. She will be missed by all and we are so blessed to have had in her our lives.