Aunt June visited our family for Christmas in 1998. She stayed for two whole weeks and that was enough time for our children to form a strong attachment to her. It was her only visit to us here.  She enjoyed going to December walks, sometimes in the rain, in our favorite park. She always took her walking stick with her! On one of our walks we encountered a very large rattlesnake on the bridge. We used her stick to encourage it to move along.

We played board games, which she was extremely good at and often caught our son, Scott, up to his tricks of bending the rules to his advantage. We had a good laugh over that!

We took her shopping and to our favorite (at that time) eating establishments. She tasted her first margarita(s) and as a result told us ghost stories and little jokes. She also enjoyed her Cointreau for desert after her meals at home with us.

She adored our beloved labrador retriever, Tandy, who thought June was pretty sweet, too. Tandy took immediate advantage of a bowl of chocolates indavertently left on the table, which we wouldn't have noticed if June hadn"t pointed out that bowl was empty. June insisted on coming along to the emergency vet visit, she was so concerned about Tandy.

We went to two church services on Christmas Eve, one was to a Presbyterian church where my cousin on Dad's side was the pastor. It was relaxed and low key, so June asked if we could go to another service that was more formal. We  attended the 11 o'clock service at our own Presbyterian church, with candles, acolytes and choir and organ music.  It was wonderful to sit with her through both of them.

Our family is pretty lively and busy, but June relished all the acitivity. I was building my home internet business and was quick to run into my office to read email, day or night! I learned a great lesson from her about that. She pointed out that people don't always answer letterss received in the post right away, and email shoiuld be treated the same way. She was absolutely right on that, and I never forgot it. Things can WAIT!

We finally had to send her on her way to Canada but it was a very sad day for us. We knew it was a once in a lifetime visit for her. We will never forget her or that visit. She was a very unique person and we loved her.