My mom had three sisters and one brother and my dad had one sister, and they all got married, so I have always had aunts and uncles in my life.  Our family has not lived particularly close, geographically, so I would see the aunts and uncles on holidays, at weddings, and at funerals – the usual extended family drill.  Then they started getting divorced or dying.  Suddenly (or so it seems) I am down to two aunts and one uncle.  I wrote about my dad’s sister, Aunt Joan, a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday we went to visit my mom’s sister, Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul.

Aunts and Uncles are special people.  I have always felt great love from them.  They are interested in my life and have my best interests at heart.  They might send presents or cards on special days.  They come to weddings and graduations.   Aunts and Uncles cheer you on and support you but with a little distance.  I always felt I could call them anytime or stop by and they would be glad to see me.  I haven’t done it much, but I always felt like I could.

It was great to spend some time with Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul.  Aunt Anne is a retired English teacher and she reads the blog and lets me know that she enjoys it.  Uncle Paul is the head reporter of the Orville post for the Wooster Daily Record.  He covers everything that goes on in Orville and loves doing it and being a part of the community.  They both had lots of questions for Tom and me about our travels and it was fun to tell some of our stories.  Because they read the blog they already knew lots of things but we could fill in more details.  We also got caught up on the cousins – Whitney in New York City and Weston in Florida.

One of the really cool things about Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul is their interest in historical preservation.  They moved and restored a log cabin built in the 1820’s.  It was a labor of love and took five years to reconstruct on their property near Wooster.  Today it is a lovely, historic and modern bed and breakfast that you can rent.  Check it out:  The Cabin at Sassafras Knoll.

Time with family is never long enough.  We enjoyed a long lunch and a nice ride with Aunt Anne and Uncle Paul, but before long it was time to say goodbye.  We will look forward to another visit sometime soon.