Aunt Paulette

The beginning of November is always a special time in the Church. The first is All Saints' Day, which celebrates all men and women who are officially declared to be in heaven by the Church. The second is All Souls' Day, which celebrates the men and women who, though not officially declared saints, have gone before us into everlasting life. This includes those souls already in Heaven, those in purgatory, and even also we the living. It is, after all, ALL Souls' Day.

November is also the month that we remember in a special way those that have left our mortal realm in the last year. Naturally when I reflected on this, my mind shifted to Aunt Paulette. I made a point to write her name in the special book in the Chapel here at Xavier. I have been thinking about her a lot lately, and those thoughts have been both sad and comforting at the same time. Since I really didn't have a chance to reflect on her and her impact on my life in blog form, I decided this was as good a time as any to do so.

The first time I can actually recall meeting her (take into account that this is the only meeting I REMEMBER) was at my cousin Kelly's wedding about five or six years ago. We all made the trip to Jacksonville for this occasion, and it was going to be interesting to finally meet all of my Grandpa's brothers and sisters, who unbeknownst to me, I had probably already met. At any rate, Aunt Paulette instantly made an impact on me. I am not just saying that just to prove my point that I miss her, but because I can actually remember what the first thing she said to me was. Here is an exerpt of our conversation, more or less, as I remember it:

AP: (already in a conversation about being nice)
SM: Hi, I am Sean, Marcel's grandson.
AP: Well, are you nice, too?
SM: (uneasy) Umm, yes?
AP: Well, good, I'll get along well with you then.

Obviously you can tell that I wasn't ready for such a question, but we got over that awkward introduction. Later on it came out how I was the one that got left behind at Grandpa Beauregard's birthday party when I was three. Once that came out, Aunt Paulette knew exactly who I was. Unfortunately, I will always be infamously remembered that way by my extended family. It was a topic of humor during the course of the visit, and I have to say now it is quite funny to me as well. Of course, at the age of three, it was a horrific experience, and I can still remember it quite vividly. Well, that's a topic for another blog.

After that summer of getting to know her through discussion and games (and all of my grandfather's siblings for that matter), I was very intrigued and wanted to keep in touch with her. Unfortunately that only really started happening two or three years later when I got introduced to the blogging world. And as you know, once I started blogging, I got hooked on blogs in general. I was introduced to so many family members that I never even knew I had. It was truly refreshing to know that there were people out there that had interesting blogs, and who were genuinely interested in what I had to say.

Aunt Paulette was something else when it came to the blogging world. Not only did she post interesting things to her own blog, but she was a diligent commenter on everyone's blogs. This included mine. I could always count on her to post something on each and every one of my posts, or at least a majority of them. Even if she didn't agree with what I said, or even if the content was boring, she made a point to comment. I always enjoyed reading her comments. She posted praise, advice, information, personal anecdotes, jokes, and shared in my joy if I had something good to report. I was very glad I had found her through blogging.

On top of her comments, I thoroughly enjoyed reading her own blog. I went all the way back to the beginning of her blog (about 4-5 years prior to now) when I started reading blogs, and she was an excellent writer. I was amazed at what an awesome memory she had, being able to recall people's names and events from sixty years ago. What a woman! Not only did she remember what happened, but she remembered specific details, and could then use her storytelling skills to set the scene for all the rest of us. I especially liked her retrospective posts on her own childhood, and the posts on all her siblings as children (especially the ones about my own grandfather). I could not get enough of her blog, and I started checking it every day for new pearls of wisdom.

Unfortunately, my new-found blogging relationship did not last long enough. That saddens me to an extent, knowing that I won't suddenly find a new comment from paulettevanh. BUT, I know that she continues to live on through her family, and she will always be present on cyberspace. I still go to her blog to get to everyone else's; come on, she did have the most comprehensive list ever. Going to that blog every day, I start to think about those fond memories, and how thankful I was to get to know her. I do truly miss her, but I do hope to see her again sometime. God willing that won't be anytime soon, and I will live a long, healthy life in which I remember everything so vividly as she did.

Aunt Paulette, pray for us...