I Just Want to Be a Good Mom

"I just want to be a good mom," my Mom just said to me on the phone.
"You are mom, you know that."
"I want to be like my Mom and teach you everything I can," she said, crying.
"Oh stop, you're making me cry again!"

My Mom just called me this morning and told me my Aunt Sue died. She died like Wednesday night or Thursday morning, but because of miscommunication, I hadn't known that. My mom flew out to Washington, where they live, but got there after she died.

"I wished I could have gotten there to say goodbye. I just hope she knew how much I loved her."

Uncle Tom is my mom's brother and had been with Aunt Sue since they were like 18. My Uncle Tom is a bit older than my mom, so when my mom was young, she said Aunt Sue was like a big sister to her.

I didn't know Aunt Sue too well because she did live in Washington, but I have really wonderful memories from when I would see her.

One year, when I was about 6 or so maybe, she gave me this stuffed bunny she had made for me. Aunt Sue was very crafty and very talented like that. She was really very sweet. And since my mom's a teacher, whenever we'd go out there, it would sometimes be during Spring Break and so a lot of times we were there for Easter and I remember dying eggs with all my cousins and decorating them with crayons and then having the traditional family chicken fights.

And then sometimes Uncle Tom and Aunt Sue would come back East and we'd see them here. A lot of times I remember visiting them at Aunt Sue's mother's house on this big farm.

I can't even remember the last time I saw Aunt Sue. I know the last time I was out there was in 8th grade for one of my cousin's weddings. So that was 6 years ago. I don't believe I've seen her since.

But she was such a sweet woman.

She'd always let me eat the strawberries from her garden.

And she was a great mom. She had six kids, and my mom was saying how Aunt Sue really loved them individually.

It's just really so sad. She was only 65. It was from lung cancer. And we only found out this summer that she even had cancer. But it is really sad.

And now I have to get ready to go home to celebrate my step-dad's birthday.