Sad

There are some times that MoM is really sad.
This is one of them.
MoM's Aunt Mack is gone.... 88 years and a life well-lived in spite of adversity that seemed to go on and on.
Aunt Mack was MoM's mama's baby sister; raised by her because Aunt Mack's mom was very ill after she was born. Allie was already married and so Anna, the next oldest girl, was responsible for the new baby. Her older sisters (Allie and Anna and Anise) named her Maxine Elliot... off a shoe box label of all things.... because they wanted to break the trend of all the girls being named with an A ( even Alice, who died in infancy)...
Aunt Mack lost her first love, JW, in a tragic car accident -- she had Jane and "Sonny" to love and cherish. Married John Lee-- a man she had known since her teenage years.
Jane married, had children, lost a son, divorced, raised two daughters.
Sonny married, had a child, divorced, stayed with his mom.
Aunt Mack was proud of her children and her grandchildren and loved her neices and nephews, those close by and those far away.
As she aged, she lost her sight to macular degeneration. It was one of the hardest times, she told MoM in phone visits, that she had faced in her life. But she would get through it.
She grieved when she lost "Buttons"-- her little dog.
She was the glue that held the rest of her extended and awkward family together... a touchstone for those of us who by choice or necessity or personality quirk could not be close.
Maxine Elliot McClinton Dodson Gist.... will be missed.