Caroline, Camaryn and myself went to go have lunch with them this past week. We knew without having to ask that Aunt Gwen would make our favorite-- vegetable soup. We walked in their house to be greeted by Uncle Emmitt and his destinct, "well hey honey! Boy, you girls are so grown" and Aunt Gwen's soft sweet "hey, sugar." We got further into the house and the combination of the smell of the vegetable soup, the old westerns on TV as background sound over the sweet hugs- I was 4 again. We sat on the couch while Aunt Gwen finished in the kitchen and looked at scrapbooks of old daycare pictures. Then it time to eat, so we moved our memory fest to the table.
We all grabbed hands and I was ready to recite "God is Great," but Uncle Emmitt took the lead. We started eating and ended up sitting at the table for over an hour exchanging stories about us growing up. Uncle Emmitt asked the infamous question, I'm sure he'd been holding in- "how many boyfriends you got now?" We all said our answer and then I asked Aunt Gwen if we could see pictures from when they got married. She explained that she didn't have a wedding picture, but she had pictures from when they dated. She told us how they started dating, how her cousin liked him but Aunt Gwen got him. He let her wear his Letterman sweater to school to show everyone that she was his. While she was telling this story, so bright eyed. He got up from the table and walked to the hall closet, only to pull out the sweater and put it on. Then, Aunt Gwen led us into the room with the old photo albums, we sat on the bed and held the delicate old photo albums. At this moment I stood back to look and see Caroline and Camaryn sitting on the edge of the bed, while Aunt Gwen and Uncle Emmitt lean over pointing and telling stories. Stories about their great move to San Diego for the Navy, 'this was our first car' & 'these are our boys when they were babies and now they are grandparents.' As I watched, I saw Aunt Gwen wrap her hand around Uncle Emmitts upper arm and keep it there as to show how much those precious moments held within those books meant to her.
As we finished up the picture albums, we walked back into the room to sit on the couch and finish reminiscing. We talked about the things we did, the adventures we went on as children, the songs we sang, the life that was instilled in us. We even talked about the small moments-- ones like, the shoes went on the back of the couch the second we walked in, we watch Rockin Reindeer every Christmas, we would sit right outside the kitchen and watch her cook (if you stepped foot in the kitchen, time out). At 22, I still hesitate to walk in the kitchen at their home. It was winding down and as we went to leave Uncle Emmitt told us to open our hand and he gave each of us a tootsie roll. He said "not everything has to change" -- he would always carry tootsie rolls in his pocket and give them to us as we left. We were not the only children that attended their daycare, there was a whopping 12 kiddos at times. It was the best childhood I could have ever imagined.
We got in the car and I opened my tootsie roll and looked at my two beautiful, grown up sisters and thought back to the times when things seemed more simple. I thought about the things that I do in my own life, that I was taught at such a young age by Aunt Gwen & Uncle Emmitt. They taught me to tie my shoes, they taught me my alphabet, they taught me not to put my shoes on the furniture, how to have manners, say the blessing before you eat, treat everyone the same. And a big one I'm starting to realize now as I get older: Uncle Emmitt use to load me and my daycare pal Bill into the van(we were about 4). We never really knew where we were going but we knew it would be the best trip. He would buckle us into our car seats and to break the silence in the car, he would turn on the Lion King cassette tape and scream along with Elton John to Circle of Life. Our day usually consisted of visiting the nursing home, Solomon Park & CiCis for lunch.
Looking back now, I thank Uncle Emmitt for singing the Circle of Life and taking us to the nursing homes. Mostly, because I'd like to think that's where the Africa seed was planted. Secondly, for showing me at the age of 4, how important other people are and how important it is to listen to people no matter what age they are. When we went to visit this past week, I was reminded of those many visits Uncle Emmitt use to make and now we were having to visit them. It's a beautiful thing when Jesus places people in your life that aren't your family, but they become your family so quick.
&& that's the circle of life.
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