Saying Goodbye to a wonderful woman

 

My great aunt Cissy passed away overnight last night. She had been ill for a couple of years, she had a blood disorder, that wasted her away from being a well built, sturdy 6 foot tall woman, to weighing about 100 pounds or less. She was pretty much bedridden, and eventually developed dementia (the past few months). But I prefer to remember her as tall, strong, and beautiful.

Cissy was my mom's aunt, her dad's sister.  My mom's parents abandonded her and her brother when they were like 2 and 4 years old, they split up, and left the 2 kids with my mom's paternal grandparents. Cissy was their daughter. She was there while my mom grew up. She never had kids of her own, so I think my mom and uncle were special to her.

In her 20s

 

In her prime she was beautiful. Her Choctaw indian heritage shone through. She had awesome lovely long black hair, she would roll it using cologne to dampen it, and roll it up on big curlers to get nice smelling soft big curls...

About 17 years old

And she LOVED having her picture taken. I have an old footlocker FULL of photos she sent back to me a long time ago. There are hundereds of photos in it, most are young men, who were probably her beau's. But there are a lot of her, alone, and with her beaus. She really liked having her picture taken.
She also like clunky jewelry. Big necklaces, noisy bracelets, she was a big woman, and liked big jewelry!  It's funny the memories that come back about her, now she has gone. 

Cissy in 1967 - about my age now.

Cissy and Cleon LOVED traveling, They had a red wood trim station wagon named "Big Red" and a camper trailer they pulled behind it. And they traveled a lot both before, and after Cleon retired.


They both began to feel their age, and Cissy battled breast cancer (and beat it) But Cleon's vision began to fail. They quit traveling, and quit doing other things - Like Garage Sales - 

My aunt loved garage sales... her weekends were planned by the garage sale ads.. she used to ALWAYS go every single Friday and most Saturdays. (But she knew the good stuff was always out on Friday) She also loved to prowl the goodwill and salvation army thrift stores.

When my parents would go to visit her, they always brought back a TON of what we lovingly called "Cissy Junk". I loved it. It was like Christmas every single time. When I was pregnant, she would send back tons of baby stuff, she always kept the kids in mind when she went garage sale-ing. In fact, Jessy's very favorite blanket, was a quilt, Cissy had sent to us when I was pregnant with Becky. She would send so much stuff, some was really "junk", but I always found treasures in her boxes! My hope chest came from her, I have a ceramic doggy collection, that she passed to me. I have many things that bring back memories of her.

My mom used to talk to her every single week. And after mama died in 2005, I made the decision to continue calling her. I called at least twice a month, usually weekly,  until she got so very sick, and didn't even know who I was, (like 6 months ago) Then I talked to Cleon.












My Aunt Cissy was very special, and will be missed so much. I wish I could go to California and say goodbye, but it's just not possible, I want to be there for my Uncle Cleon, but I know he really doesn't care if we come or not, he said his goodbyes I think already.