Well this is a pretty to do.  I am a public school employee here in muggy, hot, mosquito ridden, Gulf Coast Texas.  (The land of big hair-frizz is inevitable; big trucks, and sometimes even bigger egos!)  We are fortunate enough to be in our last week of school (Finally!) and unfortunately that means bringing paperwork home to figure percentages and get ready to do progress reports.  A friend recommended a perfectly lovely movie to me, "De Lovely".  Heaven only knows how I've missed this one, but it was the perfect accompaniment to grading.  Until the end....when I cried me a river right here on the bed.  He warned me, but I don't think I quite believed him, I should have had more tissues at the ready.  Anyway, if you like Cole Porter music, I highly recommend this movie.

I was already pretty much of an emotional mess from De Lovely when I opened an email from my mother regarding an aunt of mine that has been ill.  She's been fighting cancer now for over a year, and it's not looking good.  This aunt is only 12 years older than I am, she turns sixty in July, and there is some doubt as to whether she will make it.  In the last week or so she's started telling the family that she hopes to make it to September so that she can sit on the beach in the warm sand.  The implied meaning is that she wants to do this one more time before she dies.  There are no words for the amount of sadness I feel.  When I was growing up, as an only child, she was the closest thing to an older sister I had, she was there with advice, always available to talk or two listen.  The pain of her going, and going in such a fashion is heartbreaking. 

My mother will in all likelihood be flying back to her home town very soon, she and her other sister were going to wait until my Aunt's birthday in July to go back and visit, they are afraid if they wait they may not get to see her at all. 

As trite as it is, treasure your moments together, they are fleeting and pass all too quickly.