A Tribute to My Aunt Betty

What the World Should Know:

Aunt Betty was fierce and a fighter. She battled leukaemia for a number of years, but sick or not she worked in her vegetable garden, canned food, and worshipped her grandchildren. She loved and took pride in her garden and shared her canned goods with people who fell on hard times and included a homemade cake. If you asked for the shirt off her back, she would give it to you and two more from her closet.

Aunt Betty said what she thought at all times; she had absolutely no qualms or fears when it came to expressing herself. She never backed down no matter how much of a ruckus it caused within the family. I admire her greatly, honestly more than anyone will ever know, for this quality.

Aunt Betty was accepting. Unfortunately, a number of my aunt and uncles carry lots of prejudice ideals, but she didn't fit the category whatsoever. All Aunt Betty required was that you be yourself. If you were fake, well, God help you then-- Aunt Betty didn't care for fake people. When one of my cousins "came out," he father disowned him. Once the news made it to Aunt Betty she called her brother to tell him how stupid he was being, that he needed to realize nothing was different about his son.

I will always remember Aunt Betty as someone who would stand up for the underdog and spoke her mind so you always knew where she stood. I love that she'd tell a person in an instance to be his/herself and recommend to that person to tell everyone else to fuck off if they didn't like it. Oh yes, she'd drop the F-bomb---she always said what she thought-- I mentioned it before but I'll mention it again: that quality is something I dearly love about her. At times you never knew what would come out of her mouth, but you knew it would be from the heart or her brutal honest opinion.

Aunt Betty fought a hard battle Tuesday morning and showed she wasn't leaving very easily. She coded four times and recovered successfully; however, she wasn't able to recover after she coded for a fifth time.

Rest in peace Aunt Betty. Lots and lots love.