For Jan 18, 2010

Tell about a favorite Aunt.

Wow This one is hard. With my mother having 5 sisters and my dad having three brothers whose wives were also very special Aunts and a sister that I never knew but did know her husband and second wife. So I'll hold till the end a surprising answer to this question.

I cannot say which one was my favorite. I remember Velma as being the very quiet one. Then Zelma. whom we probably visited the most since they lived in Mapleton, being the one that cooked like Grandma Hansen using the wheat flour and honey or raw sugar. Carma and Helen were the ones I came to know most after mother’s passing since we spent several hours working together on the Hansen family history and always seeing them at any of the weddings in the family. They were also both very small and someone that I was able to at least get a little taller than even though I wasn’t that tall myself. Finally in mom’s family there was Ardyth, she was the youngest, tallest and was from California and when she and Doyle arrived the party arrived. She was always a lot of fun and it was at her wedding reception where I learned to love ice cream cake roll.

Aunt Florence and Aunt Fern, on my father’s side, were also very special. I knew Aunt Florence probably the best since she and Uncle Mont lived in Duchesne and we spent a lot of time with them. Aunt Fern and Uncle Tennis lived in Orem so we didn’t get to see them as much but I sure loved to be in their yard because it had so many beautiful flowers. I hardly knew Aunt Helen, Melvin’s wife, and can only vaguely remember her. Then Aunt Veda passed away long before I was born so Uncle Jack’s second wife was the one I remembered. In fact it was when Lynn and I went to Uncle Jack and Aunt MaryJo's place in Bountiful to stay that I learned something I had never heard before. As we were getting ready to go to bed she told us to go to bed naked as it wasn’t good to wear any clothes to bed. (That was probably the only time I slept that way.)

I had another Aunt that I claimed on Dad’s side even though she wasn’t really my Aunt. I can’t even think of her name at the moment but will never forget how I came to know her and Uncle Art. I was a missionary in Pampa ,TX and with my companion knocked on the door of a couple who had beautiful flowers planted all around their yard. I commented on how beautiful they were and that I would like to return and photograph them on our Preparation Day. She graciously invited us back even though they were Southern Baptist. We returned the next Monday and when the door was answered I thought for sure it was Uncle Jack standing there in front of me in the doorway. I simply said “Uncle Jack what are you doing here?” And he simply answered “Jack is my bother I am Art.” He then explained that I must be related to Jack but that the two of them did look a lot alike and that Jack was a brother four years younger. We visited that home several times although we didn’t get to preach the gospel to them they were very soon my favorite family in Texas. I saw Uncle Art at Aunt Mary Jo’s funeral and have somewhere a picture of Art and Jack sitting side by side at the grave. I even had a hard time telling which was which with them together, it was no wonder that I was so confused that day in Texas. We took a vacation through Texas on our way back to the National Jamboree for Scouting in 1990 and stayed at their home for a while so the children could work out their energy before traveling on the Dublin, TX. They still comment about the turtles and bird houses that Art and his wife had in their back yard.

So I guess in reality my favorite aunt had to be "Great" Aunt Zelma. I can only remember her visiting Duchesne a few times but she was our measuring stick at just a little under 5 feet tall she was the one we liked to measure ourselves against until we finally passed her. She was one of the most faithful writers to me when I was in the mission field and would send me $10.00 each month. She was Grandma Hansen’s sister and always reminded me so much of grandma. We went to St George on our way to Arizona one year with my children while Great Aunt Zelma was still living. She lived to be 104 and almost 105 since she died just a month before her birthday. I was shocked by how tall she was then. She couldn’t have been much over 3 feet because she was bent over so far due to osteoporosis. That was the last time I got to see her but it has not been the last time that I have thought about her. She and Great Uncle Leo had never had any children but they treated all of their nieces and nephews and their children like they were their own and we all knew it and loved them for it. Yes I must admit that she would have to be my favorite if such a thing could exist.

This is a picture of Grandma Hansen's brother's and sister's. And Yes this is where I got the spelling for Loren's name was from my Great Uncle Loren.