One Last Thursday

For roughly thirty years, Thursday has meant lunch with Aunt Ruth. Sometimes she would make us lunch at her house and we always enjoyed a cup of tea. Other times we ate at the local restaurant that has the yummy desserts. Since, January, my visits were mostly in the afternoon as she wasn't feeling up to eating out anymore. We still had our cup of tea.

We shared a love of crafts and hand work. She did wonderful cross stitch, sewed cute dolls, animals and tote bags and crocheted many beautiful afghans. I think she lost count of how many Ann and Andy dolls she made. She used to piece quilt squares that she cut with her scissors one at a time from fabric that she had marked with a pencil. She called these her utility quilts. Each one was a work of art in my eyes.

Aunt Ruth loved flowers and birds. Before it became too difficult for her, she had bird feeders outside her kitchen window so she could enjoy watching them. She enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, especially ones that depicted places she had traveled. The finished puzzles adorn the walls in her garage. Crossword puzzles also held her interest and she played a mean game of Scrabble.

We often solved the world's problems sitting across from each other at her kitchen table. There were searches to find the name of a person, a place or a particular pattern. This was homework for us - meant to report the following Thursday. When I left her last week, I said, "See you next Thursday." I didn't know it would be the last one. She wasn't just my aunt, she was one of my best friends and I will miss her every day.