Life Is Like A Vapor

I got a call Tuesday night from my Aunt Liz with startling news. She'd called to tell me that my cousin Alice was in the hospital and not expected to live. This news came as such a shock! I hadn't even heard that she was sick and now she was about to die?!

Sure enough the next day she was gone. A week before she had been fine as far as she and everyone else knew. A harsh reminder to me that tomorrow is not promised to any of us. This is why the bible says that TODAY is the day. We can't smugly rest assured that we have a tomorrow just because things are going well.


A little about my "Aunt" Alice.

Alice was my mom's best friend when I was a child. She married my dad's cousin, Cecil a few years prior to my parents marriage and she and my mother really hit it off. They spent several days a week together throughout most of my childhood. And somehow I grew up calling her "Aunt" even though she was really a cousin.

I'd bet one of the reason that my mom and her became friends was because of her hospitality. Aunt Alice had a way of making you feel welcome in any situation. The way I've always seen her is as a true southern belle. She was always so beautiful with her jet black hair and kind demeanor.

Alice loved children. Be it her grandchildren or a child of one of her friends she always had time to talk to them and give them gifts. Many of my best presents when I was a kid came from my Aunt Alice.


Many people will say good things about someone else once they pass away just because they are gone, but that's not the case here. Monday I was scanning some of my mother's old photos to burn to a DVD when I came across Aunt Alice's photo. My wife happened to be in the room and comment on her and I stopped and was telling her many of these same things I've written here. So what I'm writing about her here aren't some sentimental musings because she's died. It's my true opinion of her and always has been.

I only wish that I had taken the time to tell her how much she meant to me. But I made that arrogant mistake of thinking that tomorrow was guaranteed.

Today we went to her funeral. It was really hard to see her there surrounded by pictures of her great-grandchildren and her beloved Elvis. That woman was a die hard Elvis fan by the way. There were family there that I hadn't seen in over fifteen years or more. Somehow it seemed to make the whole thing seem so surreal.

Alice and her daughters Joan (left) and Theresa (right)

I don't know her exact age but Aunt Alice was somewhere in her mid sixties, which is part of the reason her passing comes as such a surprise. She was always so vital and energetic that I would have thought she'd have outlived most of us well into her ninety's.

On a slightly more positive note, it was really good to see so many family members I hadn't seen in years. Stacey really enjoyed all their old tales about my childhood. And when Joan, Alice's oldest daughter started telling Stacey about changing my diaper when I was a baby and joking about my baby butt I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

One of my cousin's Sheila who's about the same age as I and one of my original playmates gave Stace all kinds of dirt on me. I think it's cute how Stacey ate it all up.

Stacey was very kind and supportive throughout this and I'm very grateful to God for giving me such a sweet and understanding wife. Loosing my Aunt Alice just serves to make me all the more grateful for those that I love.

Aunt Alice, I love you and I'll truly miss you.

Finally! Bumblebee!

Earlier in the week I posted that I had run all over the place trying to find a Bumblebee figure from the movie. I really did go to every store that might have him within a 25 mile radius of my home. Finally disappointed and discouraged I posted my woes here in a rant.

Later the next day I saw in my comments that my cousin who uses the screen name "Rain" would check the stores where she lives in Ohio. I thought that was SO sweet of her! She's got two children of her own to take care of as well as a boyfriend to spend time with (Not to mention a really cute pug named Jackson!) and she still took time out to go looking for a TOY for her immature cousin.

While waiting to hear back from her I continued my search and much to my surprise, my wife told me that her mom was now looking for the figure as well! Now that was amazingly sweet of her as well! I'm blessed that I have a good relationship with Stacey's parents. I love em' to death and think they're the kind of people I'd be friends with even if I wasn't married to their daughter. Both "Mom" and "Rain" are such darlings to sacrifice their time (and gas money) just to help me find a Transformer!

So anyway Thursday night just as I was getting into bed the phone started ringing. Normally I wouldn't have bothered answering it seeing that it was already past 10 o'clock. But as anyone who's read Thursday's post knows I was in a REALLY bad mood so I went to answer it just so I could tell them off for calling my house so late on a week night! (Bad Donnie!)

Well to my surprise it was my cousin "Rain"! I only get to talk to her about once a month, so no matter what , I wouldn't have yelled at her. I'm a single child but "Rain" is the closest thing I have to a sister in this world. She can get away with things that no one else besides my wife can. So anyway she was calling to tell me that she was watching an auction on eBay for Bumblebee!

I checked it out and sat up with her talking on the phone most of the night! We are ALWAYS on the phone for a long time whenever we talk. We both just enjoy the others conversation so much that we loose track of time. So that night I bid on the auction and won! And I didn't have to pay too much more than what I would have had to in the store!

This is the little sucker I was looking for! Now I can't wait for it to get here!

The next day I went to TransformersWorld2005, a website about transformers and collecting to check their message boards out and ended up finding and chatting with the same guy that I made my eBay purchase from! Small world huh?

I just want to say thanks to my cousin and Mother-in-law for all their help. It honestly didn't matter to me if they found one or not, I was genuinely touched that they would help. The fact that I DID end up getting the figure sure is a sweet icing on the cake though. :P