My Aunt

Life is full of surprises, and the past year has proven that true.  

I'm all about feelings, I usually start an explanation with "this made me feel.." or "I feel like..." and I have to share this experience which brought up tons of POSITIVE feelings for myself.  Note that this is all my perspective.  I don't know the entirety of feelings from the rest of my family, so I speak for myself.  

Let's start at the beginning.  My father's mother passed away before I was born.  She has always been referred to as "GG" by the grand kids, Gorgeous Grandma.  All I knew of her while growing up were stories that the family told and pictures from before my existence.  Even though I never experienced her in the flesh, I've always felt a spiritual connection to her.  I feel like I know her smell, but that idea is based off of a potpourri holder that comes out at Christmas (silly, I know).  I feel like I know her energy just because of the images of her that I've seen.  But I recognize that I missed a lot and don't know even a fraction of who she was, and I'm sometimes sad that I never knew the feeling of her hugs and who she could have been to me as a grandmother.  

As said in the past, I'm not heavily "religious" but consider myself spiritual.  I've always felt like my GG is my guardian angel.  I felt like she was a part of my life even though she passed away about 4 years before I was born.  There was a period of time when I would get this sense of pressure on my mid to lower back.  A feeling like when someone puts their hand on your back, an external feeling, not internal.  The first thing that would pop into my head when I felt that was my GG.  I took that as her sign that she was there walking beside me.  Now it's very likely that I'm a nut and I'm reading into things, but it brings me comfort to think that she's with me.

Jumping ahead...

Last year my brother was contacted on Facebook by a woman who thought she could be our aunt.  I wasn't there when Dominic told my parents about it, and showed them the pictures.  I went to my parents house later that week and my mom told me she had something crazy to tell me (not sure that crazy was the word, but she said it in a way that made me run through the possibility of things she was about to tell me-in a split second).  I never imagined that she was about to tell me that my dad had a sister that no one knew about.  I cried.  I cried because it meant there was a person on this earth that could potentially resonate my grandmothers spirit that I never knew fully.  I also cried because when I saw this woman's picture, I could see my grandmother from all of the pictures I'd seen growing up.  I can't imagine the emotions my dad was feeling and the rest of the family who knew my GG.  Knowing that there was a secret like this that was held on to so tightly by my grandmother answered a lot of questions about what she was going through as a young woman.

Meeting Winnie

Winnie is the woman who contacted my brother on FB.  She is our aunt, and my dad's half sister who resembles his mother incredibly.  She and my dad began getting to know each other over the phone.  As time passed, they completed the DNA process which confirmed that they are in fact half siblings.  Winnie was born to my grandmother just days after her 18th birthday, and as we can all imagine, a teen pregnancy was not something that was as common and accepted as it is today.  Winnie was given up for adoption with very few knowing anything about it.  

I went with my parents to meet Winnie in May.  I had to be apart of that moment when my dad met his sister for the first time.  I describe it as magical, positive, exciting, emotional and strange (haha!).  Winnie is a vibrant woman who exudes light and love.  I personally felt an immediate comfort.  I wasn't comparing her to my GG (besides the physical aspect), since I didn't know my GG, but I felt like she wasn't a stranger...which was strange.  We had a nice meeting at a winery with Winnie, her husband Bob and her son Matt, such a wonderful group of people.  I found myself sitting quietly soaking it all in, a bit in disbelief that life can throw such great surprises at you.  The following day Winnie hosted a gathering with extended family members of ours and a few friends of hers.  It was a beautiful day filled with love and emotion.

First hug

The family gathered watching home videos of when my dad was a kid

I look forward to more get-togethers with Winnie and her family, and getting to know the aunt I didn't know I had.  Though there have been many missed years, it doesn't mean we can't create an abundance of memories with the time we have left!

~Alex~

This is GG as a young woman.  She's beautiful!