Goodbye Lois

July 1st is shaping up as one of the momentous days on the calendar in my life.  Several years ago I lost my dad on July 1st.  A couple years after that my daughter was born on July 1st (and the year before that my Brother-in-law's son was born on July 1st).  This year I lost my Aunt Lois on July 1st.

Probably should make sure that I don't hang glide or bungee jump or have major surgery on a July 1st.  Just makes sense to play the percentages.

My Aunt Lois was my mother's older sister.  There were three sisters: Lois, Eileen, and Sari.  They actually went in reverse order.  Sari dies many years ago after a pretty troubled life.  We lost my mother a little while back.  Her mother actually went next, and now the last of the three sisters.

Aunt Lois and Uncle Phil lived in New York while my family and most of the extended family lived in Chicago.  For most of my life we didn't have much of a relationship compared to the other cousins that lived locally.  We saw Lois & Phil once a year maybe, sometimes a little more often.  We would go to New York to stay with them or they would come to Chicago and stay with us or with other relatives.

Trips to New York were always a treat.  There were two cousins Mark & Jeff that were older than me - the cool older cousins.  The house they had while I was growing up had a great basement with a pinball machine, ping pong table, and bumper pool.  They also had a small shop where I occasionally got to build models with one of my cousins.

Much later on I used to see them a little more often after I graduated from college and moved to New Haven.  I would do holidays with the Seidens and even lived in their house for one summer while I worked at Hudson Scenic at Hunts Point.

For a while Lois and Phil were snowbirds, living in Florida during the winter in a beachside condo and back in New York during the rest of the year.  Eventually she was in Florida full time and we made our way to visit her there occasionally.

Lois had this reputation in my family as being someone that didn't take no for an answer.  If you wanted something and didn't know how to make it happen you would ask Lois and she'd lead you through it.  I've always joked that Lois was someone that could get on a plane after the door was closed or someone that could get a boat to come back to the dock after it had departed.  She just had a superpower.

We'd really only seen Lois a couple of times in the past couple of years.  When Gib5on was one we were to Florida and stayed with Lois so she would get to see him.  Maybe two years ago we got to see her briefly in New York when we were out visiting my sister.  She went into a decline sometime prior to that.  She was having a little trouble placing my face and clearly didn't know my son - reasonable enough since we weren't a regular part of her life.

She lead an amazing life.  I'll miss her very much.