Part 4 Aunt Dot

Beautiful Aunt Dot was quickly married Mr.Tall, Dark and Handsome. The years rolled by with a very good lifestyle but had no children.. As a little girl, I visited often and was pampered being there. About ten years after they were married, they built a large cabin on the Tennessee River where fun meant great meals, boating and skiing the summers away. The cabin was large with capacity to slept sixteen. We enjoy a large screened in porch with a sweeping view of the river. Many card game were played right there.

Summers in the south are memorable as heat and humidity interlace in a soft blanket which welcomes the evenings. I remember Aunt Dot making a grand breakfast every morning of eggs, sausage, biscuits and tomatoes. Uncle Handsome loved Aunt Dot and called her "Babydoll."

Nephew Edward was about 3 years younger than me and the only child of Uncle Handsomea' brother. They were always were at the River Cabin with us. I was somewhere between playmate and babysitter for Ed, which was great as he was a spoiled little brat who loved me. Edward actually turn out to be a great little pal and dare-devil skier. We double-skied taunting each other while skimming waters trying to derail the other.

Late one afternoon when the adults were in the cabin, he and I decided to play Tom Sawyer by building a raft of intertubes, ropes and boards from the boathouse. Four intertubes, tied together topped with secure boards and 2 paddles available, we set off rafting down the wide, deep and seemingly lazy river to an island which looked much closer then it actually was. The currents took us easily to our destination as the late afternoon sun became lazy in the sky.

We pulled the raft onto the little island and explored for a little while finding nothing of interest. We noted the sun dropping and now to the task of getting back upstream. The sun quickly was gone and dusk made the river current seem stronger. We worked our way but the going was slow. Seemed darkness came quicker that day and there we were in the middle of a river some five miles wide and only God knew how far we were from our pier. We continued, peddling as fast and hard as we could.

It wasn't long before we could see lights on the river ahead. The lights were searching back and forth. They soon came our way and we could faintly hear our names being called. The rescue was welcomed, however, our rescuers were filled with fear, relief and a proper amount of anger. It wasn't pleasant. Lectures galore followed.

Now a lifetime has passed.
Uncle Handsome died some thirty years ago. Just before he died, he asked me to come to be with her when that time came. I was there.

A few years later, I asked her if she ever thought about Mr. Too Good and why didn't she call him to see how he was. She remembered the love she always had for him, and knew where he was at the time, but never made a call. She, many years later, told me he had died. I didn't ask how she knew, however, he was a well known public figure. I wondered what her life would have been like if.....

Aunt Dot always visited us even when we lived in Brazil. She played Santa one year in Virginia when my children were young, She looked good in the Santa suit...what fun. Many years of memories of her will live forever for all of her niece's and nephews.

Now, we gather, cousins who she has loved and "mothered" over the years to talk about what to do about Aunt Dot. She has let everything go and allowed swindlers drain her money. It is our job to keep her safe. That is what we are doing about Aunt Dot.