Friday, December 8, 2023
I remember Aunt Ruth serving her famous rum cookie balls near Christmas. I spent a lot of time with her at the cabin, walking around the lake through the woods. Not a fan of poison ivy, she’d point to the plant. Ruth shared her cabin, her food, and her love with my parents and their children. Our family spent a lot of happy times playing a game called garbage, eating together at the huge picnic table Uncle Bill built, swimming in the lake, and spending time at the fire pit.
I remember my aunt helping me when I had a leach burrowed into my toe. She calmly took me into a room at the cabin, smiled at me, and yanked it from my toe. On that day, she was my hero.
Ruth was full of fun. You never knew what to expect next. One day we were in the rowboat together and I closed my eyes for a few minutes. I felt a jolt, and to my surprise she rowed the boat into a young man on a raft floating on the water. “Hi, this is my niece, Deb,” she said. She looked sheepish as she was trying to get me a date.
My husband, Gabe, and I enjoyed her ‘whatever” expression. She would shrug her shoulders and roll her eyes. We are thankful for the many celebrations we spent together with her as a family.
Aunt Ruth may be gone from my sight, but never my heart.
