Just in time for my cabin adventure, my cousin Carl published his Henderson genealogy book...good stuff--there are over 77 thousand names in it. Told you the Henderson's were a huge group of people!
I saw names in there of kids I went to school with and rode the bus with my whole life...kids who bullied me, too! I saw the name of my maternal uncle's wife...oh what a wonderful world...oddly enough she's also kin to me on my father's paternal grandmother's side as well as on his maternal grandfather's side! When she and my uncle married, I was 7. In my eyes, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Only one other woman in my "fairy tale" world would ever come close to being as beautiful as my Auntie Malinda was and is...and that was Lady Diana Spencer. So, in my head, Malinda was a princess and my uncle was the luckiest man in the world. I didn't even know her prior to my mother's brother dating and marrying her. I remember when she was in the Fairest of the Fair one of the first years he dated her...I subsequently wore the same dress to my first prom, in the ninth grade. She's also the aunt (along with my uncle)who took me to see "Psycho II", "Clash of the Titans", "Star Wars", and also "ET", after whose viewing I questioned loudly of my very pregnant aunt, in front of everyone, "Are you CRYING??" Aunt Malinda was (and is) the very essence of a smart, southern woman, and she has the most kind and caring parents. They're just good people. Auntie Malinda-I never called her "Aunt" growing up for some reason. It was always just "Malinda". After I became a mother, I really got to thinking that it might hurt her feelings for me not to call her "Aunt" so I started saying "Auntie Malinda"...pronouncing "aunt" differently from the word "ant" in this case...and I cannot for the life of me figure out why I say it that way. But I do it because the longer I know her, the more I love her. Just can't help it. And now, years later, discovering that we were more than just relatives via marriage means more to me than I can describe. The woman who came and picked me up and took me to church. Who let me wear her clothes when I didn't have anything appropriate to wear...who gave an unmarried, very pregnant niece the loveliest baby shower...who loaned same new mother every piece of baby furniture she had...who didn't get mad when a 14 year old girl backed her car into a wall...and let me work weekly cleaning her house so I could afford a pair of red stripe Nikes...back when they were all the rage..
I can never tell you all the things she and my uncle have done for me, for my family. She is one of a kind, and I am proud that she is in my life.
So, this isn't really a posting about the cabin...but it is just something that was in my heart and I needed the world to know...
I love my Auntie Malinda!
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