Tribute to my Aunt Mary Ann

Mary Ann was a beautiful, wonderful, gracious, giving, faithful, loving, daughter, sister, mother, friend, aunt, co-worker etc. As seen at her funeral. So many came out to show their love it was a blessing to know that she had touched so many lives. She will be missed but not forgotten.

I would like to tell you a fond memory I have of Aunt Mary Ann and her family. First I have to explain to you that the people in my family have many pronunciations of their names. Such as my cousin Darryl pronounced Durl. And yes I did call him Durl to his face once. To which he replied "Missy(my aka), hun you do know that my name is Darryl?" Me, "Of course I do, what do you think I am stupid?" Ummm OK.... How was I to know? I had never heard him called anything else..

So one New Years week several years ago my Grandmother (aka MawMaw, Thelma, Thelmer, Thelmoo) and her sister Dot were going to visit their sister Mary Ann (aka May-ree Ann, May-ran) and ask my cousin Jennifer and myself to come along. After we checked out schedules (we were very popular high school girls, OK maybe she was but I was not) we decided to go. The ride there was not very memorable. The ride home was a whole other story. I will save that for another day.

Disclaimer: If any of this sounds like it might be about your OBGYN you are sadly mistaken. Your OBGYN is a (and always has been) a very serious mature person.

OK so we get to May-ran's where you are always made to feel welcome and invited. When I grew up I wanted my family to be like theirs. They would all pile up in the bed together. May-ran and her kids and their spouses. Who ever was there would watch a movie together or whatever "the" show was at the time. When we got settled the whole clan decided to go out for Chinese. I believe there were at least 10 of us and we each ordered a dish and passed it around. So we could each have a taste. Well when we got home Chinese did not settle well with someone. And the un-named person visited the bathroom outside "our" bedroom several times. I am not sure how it all came about but half of a can on Lysol was sprayed under the bathroom door. I am also not sure how the person in the bathroom did not slip and fall coming out. We laughed until we cried. How we did not get in trouble is beyond me???

The next day one of the doctors that worked with Mary-Ann had given her tickets to the Charlotte Hornets game. I believe it was New Years Eve. So being such a gracious and giving person she gave the tickets to my cousins and I. Back then there was a place called Hayden's, it was a bar, and they provided a bus ride to and from the games. The bus was called Hayden's Hornets it was for people who got too drunk at the game to drive back (or teenage girls who's moms did not trust them to drive in Charlotte traffic on New Years Eve). We loved the game and we had really great seats(floor seats maybe?). A guy asked us if we wanted to buy a program for $15. And we said no we can't afford that. And the guy said how did you get these seats if you can't afford a program. We said we paid for the seats and that's why we could not afford it. The people behind us agreed. It was after mid-night before we got home. The next morning was New Years Day, so the sisters {had} to fix the traditional meal, greens, black eyed peas the usual. We had planned to sleep in. No such luck the pressure cooker exploded at about 9:15. We shot up in the bed. It sounded like a bomb had gone off and the sisters were in the kitchen screaming and running around with dishcloths cleaning up the mess. It wasn't til later that we noticed that there were collard greens on the ceiling. We always had fun at Aunt Mary Ann's and I always felt like one of her kids. She would love on me but she would also fuss at me if I needed it.

If you live over on Lake Norman and you can't figure out what the green stuff is on the ceiling don't worry it's not- mold it's just collard greens.