Aunt Bonnie

Last night I got the news that my Aunt Bonnie had died. My cousin Billy let me know. I was very sad to hear of her passing. It has been several years since I have seen her and I guess it is normal to ask yourself, why did I not make the time? I guess that is why it is always harder for the people left behind. But I know in my heart that my Aunt Bonnie knew I loved her. So I thought I would spend a few minutes this morning telling everyone about Aunt Bonnie. We are all better people from knowing her. Her children are better parents for having her in their lives and in the lives of their children.
Aunt Bonnie was married to my mother's youngest brother Gene. Like all the rest of our family they traveled working the crops and trying to make a better life for their six children. Aunt Bonnie was one of my mother's best friends. My mother would tell these great stories about her times with Uncle Gene and Aunt Bonnie. Their life together was not an easy one. But my Aunt Bonnie never wavered in her faith in her God or her love of my Uncle. She stood beside him and made "his people, her people". I always loved that about her. Their lives took them to Reno Nevada and that is where they settled, raised a family and where she will be laid to rest. My Aunt Bonnie held her family together through the death of her husband, one of her grand-daughters, a grandson and three of her own children. No woman should ever have to know so much pain. But through it all she had her God and she knew that the path for her was laid out by him, and she must follow it. She was this tiny little women and yet she was so large in her faith. I have thought of her when bad things have happen in my own life and thought "how does she do it". When my cousin Ralph passed away I asked her about it, how do you go on? She told me faith. Faith is what helped her survive. Knowing that at the end of this path she would meet her God and be with her children once more. I have faith she is with them now.