every family has 'that' aunt the one that's strange the one grown ups are reluctant to mention in the company of children

when the kids grow up the cousins sometimes chat...

do you remember aunt virginia?

she never married...

(wasn't she the one who had the abortion?)

(wasn't she the one who liked girls?)

(wasn't she the one who liked the gardener?)

(and didn't she drink?)

no. nothing that bad-

she was the one who looked after her mother for twenty years;

she looked after her mother until she took a pillow to her

suffering mother's face

one of the pretty pillows she had worked out in cross stitch

for hours and hours

for years and years

sitting next to mother's bed

she stitched and stitched

(while only her fingers bled)

which pillow was it, dear?

the one with white jesus on the cross?

the one with blood roses and their thorns?

the one with the children's faces in blue embroidery cotton?

(wasn't she the one who had the broken heart?)

every family has an aunt with a skeleton in the closet

in my family

one day

she will be me

seasofme090613holly