This post is dedicated to my Aunt Lori Jeanne Bronson. When I woke up this morning, I realized that I have never written about how her life and her death affected me. I owe her at least that today!
Our Aunt Lori never had her own children, and other than the years we spent in Virginia, my sisters and I were the nieces who lived nearest to her. So we were spoiled. She always got us the presents our parents refused to buy, like Ferbys, or anything else that made obnoxious noises. (She also let us help her with her pet birds - I remember how chaotic and it exciting it was when the birds were flying around the house.) My family moved back to Utah just a few days before my birthday, so I didn't have any friends to celebrate with. Lori took me out to dinner and to the mall to pick out anything I wanted. That is just one memory, but that's how she was. She loved to treat us to things.
She was there when we were born. Lori especially liked to talk about the day my sister Rachel was born - how it had been a rainy, gloomy, morning, but as soon she as she got the phone call to hurry over to the hospital, the sun came out and a huge rainbow filled the sky and curved right over the hospital where Rachel was on her way!
When I was in ninth grade, Lori was in a coma in the hospital for a long time, after complications during surgery. This was a really hard time for our family. My youngest sister (who has Lori's middle name) was just over a year old, and "Lori" was one of her first words because during that time my mom was taking her to visit the hospital almost every day. I clearly remember our extended family praying together in Lori's hospital room right before she died. I was the youngest person there and it was my first experience with death. When my aunt passed away, the hardest part for me was seeing the adults in my life break down and fall apart.
My sisters and I sang at my aunt's funeral, which is still one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I wish I could say that because it was a Mormon funeral we were all really happy, but that's just not the case. I remember scaring myself by how much I was crying and being afraid I would ever be able to stop. I looked over to my mom for help, but she was just even more upset than I was.
Last Saturday I sat in the Logan temple with my mom as she escorted me through for the first time. She told me that before I was born, she and my Aunt Lori had sat in the same room as my mom acted as her escort as well. That was probably the most special part of my temple experience.
This morning I was remembering what my mom talked about at Lori's funeral. She talked about how life is the greatest gift God has given to us, how we each have our own beautiful life to spend as we wish.
During the same thought, I remembered a day about 9 months ago when I took a spontaneous drive to the Ogden Cemetery to talk to my Aunt Lori about loneliness. My family was at church, and I never told them I'd gone to see her.
Because of the beautiful life I've been given, the gift my mother was able to focus on at her sister's funeral, I am not as sad today as I was 9 months ago. I have been unspeakably blessed by opportunities I'd never thought I'd have and people I never dreamed of meeting. Today I have been blessed with the feeling that my Aunt Lori knows that. That she knows I'm happy now, and she's proud of the life I'm creating for myself.
My family and I know that Lori is merely in the next room. I like to think that she checks on us from time to time, but that mostly she is busy having adventures.
We love you Aunt Lori!
I didn't know that you had an aunt who had passed away as well. Sometimes I think a lot of people take "aunts" and "uncles" for granted, but they are wonderfully important people in our lives. I often think of my aunt Jenny and the tender moments I have experienced thinking of her since she's been gone. And one of Bill's biggest role-models was his Uncle Richard, a man I have never met. I can very much connect to the feelings you expressed in this post. I really appreciate it. And I know your aunt Lori does too. :)
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