“It’s a great life if you don’t weaken. “My aunt Helen did confide. She is somewhere north of eighty-four and never someone’s bride. Her beau died in Korea, died to keep our country free, “ At least that was the pious pap they tried to sell to me.” So she lived a solitary life, watching horses round the rail. She would hang around casinos too, the reason she’s so pale. “There are no pockets in those things.” She told me at a wake. “so you won’t catch me sitting home, that’s a big mistake.” In these later years she might enjoy a second glass of wine. She is fiercely independent; she is a good friend of mine. So, if now and then thoughts scatter and she tells a tale again. I smile and listen patiently. We all get there in the end.
An ode to my dear aunt Helen, an American original