Everyone Should Have an Aunt Fannie Memory....

      It was the summer of 1956 and hot as all blazes when I first met Aunt Fannie. This tiny woman was an aunt of my grandmother, Mamamae. She lived I think in Arkansas or Missouri. She was making her first and last trip to visit her dead sister's side of the family. What an impression she made on me that summer. She looked like a tiny Dresden doll. I thought she was the prettiest lady I had ever seen. She came from another century. It was just by accident she landed in our family; because she sure did not belong in Kentucky in July. If Aunt Fannie was 5 feet tall it was because she was wearing black laced-up leather boots with thick black stockings. Her dress was long and black and almost touched the floor. It had forty million tiny pearl buttons on the waistcoat of her dress. The sleeves of the dress were tailored snug and long, touching her small wrists. She always carried a white lace trimmed handkerchief. I never saw her sweat but she was always on the verge of fainting. She had long snow white hair that reached her waist when she brushed it at night. In the daytime, she wore it braided and wound in a small mountain on top of her head. I thought she was the prettiest person I had ever seen. She belonged in an old western movie, not in our house in Kentucky.
  I think Aunt Fannie lived in the country and had an outhouse for a bathroom. I know using our bathroom made her nervous. So did the fact that we lived so close to Hwy 51. The traffic mesmerized her but it was also very frightening. Coupled with the fact we lived across the street from the jail and I may or may not have mentioned in passing that prisoners escaped all the time. She was nervous the week she stayed with us.
  We took her to Columbus Park and to Cairo. Illinois to eat out. We also took her to see her nephew Noah who lived somewhere across the Mississippi River. Mama had been preparing me all week to meet Noah. She explained that he was very sick. He stayed in an iron tank flat on his back and the machine called an 'iron lung', did all of his breathing for him. I couldn't picture that in my mind. Something didn't sound right. When we arrived Mama told me to be very quiet and not ask a lot of questions. I remember I entered the room. The machine was huge and making all these pumping sounds. Then there would come a huge gust of air as the machine created another breath for Noah. He turned his head and smiled saying, "Glad to meet you Miss Vicky". I screamed and ran out of the room and out of the house crying. I remember I felt sorry for Noah but he scared me to death. Everything about that home was scary. 
  Nearly every home back then had a front porch to sit on and enjoy any breeze that might or might not occur. I set down on the steps and cried. I was ashamed I had screamed and scared Noah. Mama came out and set down to talk to me about polio, I think. I stayed on the porch and Mama went back inside to visit. Granddaddy had already had all the excitement he wanted for the day so he came out to visit with me. He smoked one Lucky Strike cigarette after the other for a few minutes. I guess we stayed a couple of hours. I never entered that house again. We left and took the ferry back across the river. I loved riding the ferry. It was the first time for Aunt Fannie. She really enjoyed it too. I bet it was also the first and only time she was as cool as the breeze that surrounded the boat. It felt wonderful.
  As soon as Aunt Fanny arrived at Mamamae's home she had to go to the dreaded bathroom. When she was through, she could not open the bathroom door. We explained how the small lock worked but the more she tried to fix the door the upset she became. Finally, Grandaddy asked me if I could climb the ladder and crawl through the small bathroom window to open the door for Aunt Fannie. I was so excited about rescuing Aunt Fannie I forgot how tall the ladder was. Once I was in and the door unlocked Aunt Fannie announced that she would be leaving in the morning if a bus ran that day. Lucky for her it did and she got home and back in her comfort zone. I had not thought of Aunt Fannie in forty years until the other day when my old door on the laundry room locked and I could not get in. It was the same kind of lock. The house I live in was built in the 1880's. It has been remodeled and looks very modern and pretty. There are touches of the past here and there. I like that. I forgot about how the old doors worked. My landlord offered to replace the doors but I told him I liked them and touches of the past are nice. It was a good day to take a slow walk down memory lane. I enjoyed the memories. Noah's story became better for him. He married his nurse and she had a daughter. Life became better for everyone. Fall was just around the corner.