The Mail: Aunt Barb

This continues a series on the real mail I've recently received and the person behind the parcel.

Alleluia!

After a couple days off, I thought I'd try to pick up where I left off. Today marks one month of working from home and one month since I received a St. Patrick's Day card from my godmother, my Aunt Barb. She sends a card at every major (and sometimes minor) holiday, whether secular or religious. Sometimes she even sends thematic care packages, whether about butterflies, or Phillies stuff, or cycling. She gets me. Really, though, what a joy to find an Easter card in the mail last week at a time when I could barely remember it was Holy Week! It had a big "Alleluia" on the front and lots of flowers, which is appropriate for the season and for my aunt.

One of my Aunt Barb's famous care packages.

My mom is one of seven siblings, three boys and four girls, born in that order (one brother has passed away). My aunt was the fifth child and is the one most like my grandmother: kind, gentle, close to beauty, in love with nature. She loves to bake, garden, bird watch, and research family history. She enjoys the simple things in life. Out of all of my aunts and uncles, Aunt Barb was the only one to complete a bachelor's degree. She studied at the Pennsylvania State University, first at the local branch campus in town and then finishing up at University Park with a degree in horticulture. She married soon after college and did not use her degree professionally.

As a kid living in a city, I was not into nature and things like that, but my godmother's love of nature and science rubbed off on me a bit. I remember in my ninth grade physical science class I had to put together a bona fide, short-term experiment using the scientific method. When I needed help, my mom said, "Go ask Aunt Barb." Our teacher was demanding, and to many, downright intimidating. Aunt Barb helped me to create an experiment about hydroponics, which earned me an outstanding grade with this very rigorous teacher.

My godmother has always been generous with her time and talent, supporting my crazy ideas when my parents just shrugged their shoulders. In the fourth or fifth grade, I wanted to be Commander Spock from the original Star Trek series. She tailored a blue uniform with the Starfleet insignia and gold command stripes on the sleeves. I had the pointed ears and used makeup to arch my eyebrows. Gosh, what a nerd! I loved Star Trek before J.J. Abrams made it cool again. But she totally got how important it was to me. While her love of science and nature has stayed with me, I wish that I had gotten her gift of sewing, knitting, crocheting, and crafting, especially in these COVID days when making masks is all the rage.

Aunt Barb is pretty camera shy.
I had to crop her out of a group photo.

Aunt Barb is a faithful woman and has been a model godmother to me. Like so many of us, she has had her share of significant challenges in life: dealing with a nasty divorce, raising a child with special needs, and caring for my grandmother who died 11 years ago. The cards she sends at every holiday, even on St. Patrick's Day which doesn't mean too much for this Italian girl, mean the world to me. I don't tell her that often enough. Maybe it's time for me to send a card to her in thanksgiving. I've got lots of great nature cards that I know she will love and appreciate like few others in my family can.