Originally Published 04/14/2024, republishing as I do not like today’s question about what I am doing tonight as it’s invasive and reeks of data mining.

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.

This is a great question. I have many family members and friends whose contributions throughout my life have been immensely positive and influential. Today I choose to talk about the closest person to me in my entire lifetime. My godmother/favorite aunt.

My godmother was my dad’s sister, and she was an integral part of my life pretty much from when I was born until her far too soon death at age 50.

She was that favorite aunt the one that would watch my sister and I every time my parents will go out of town or take a trip and we had the best time. We got to stay up later than normal. We got to eat a lot of special treats. We normally get to have. It was wonderful, in fact, I was almost bummed when My came home.

My godmother loved playing games board games in card games even video games (Astrosmash, David’s Midnight Magic, Sammy Lightfoot, and Apple IIe Olympic Decathlon). We’d play: cootie bug, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Sorry, Candyland, checkers, chess, backgammon, Pictionary, gin rummy, double solitaire,Spirograph, and many other games. My love of the rules and playing games the right way came from my godmother because she was a stickler for the rules.

And playing games such as Pictionary my aunt and I were a very difficult team to beat because we could almost read each other’s minds and guess drawings with very little information on the piece of paper. We had the same sense of humor and liked similar stand-up comedians.

Her love of the ocean, pool, swimming, and water also became mine and still is to this day. ❤️ 🌊

My godmother was very brave on the side. She sang back ups and a little Elvis outfit called memories of Elvis. I know she was very shy and yet she went out there and even went on tour with the band several times it reminds me when I get nervous myself taking new steps in my life to go for it like she did.

We’d watched Grease 2 (I know I’m sorry) 100 times. I don’t know why she just loved the movie. I remember she recorded with the tape recorder some of the songs and then we went to the pool we’d sing along.

One of the best parts about my aunt was that she like I was an empath. Therefore, I could be a sensitive and odd as I wanted to be, and I’d be normal around her. she was far more sensitive than I am and I guess I’m thankful for that for if I was any more sensitive, I’d probably go crazy. Even some of her fear is carried over to me for a time. She was always very afraid of storms and lightning and thunder and so was I for a small period of time. She was so afraid, that she’d call me and ask me, “when the storm was going to pass” because I’d always know as I’d have a Weather app open or the Internet up or something.

Being a unique individual is not always been easy for me. I am not always fit in with the crowd of my peers and often was shunned for it so when I was 14 and most of the people I knew were dating I really didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to do things with sometimes. My aunt knew this and would take me out on a family date. We go out to Whittier and go see Nana and have dinner over at Ruby’s Frosty freeze. It made me feel like a normal kid. She did that for me and it was so huge as I didn’t have a lot of friends and I didn’t measure up like the other kids. She made it so I felt OK anyway.

She had the greatest influence on my taste of anybody in my life. Bands that she loved I love such as: The Beatles, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie wonder, the Little River Band, Elton John, the Electric Light Orchestra, The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Hall & Oates, Dan Fogelberg, and many others. I’m sure my wanting to be a musician and being one for many years also came from her influence. When I was unsure about my abilities as a musician, she reminded me that Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was told by his music teacher in high school that he would never amount anything and look at all the beautiful music he created. 

I recall hearing a lot of those bands on the radio in her car when she’d take me on adventures when i was young. She took me to Penn Park, where we saw the swans. In the summer times she take me to the Whittier Public library and I spent hours in the wading pool. She took me to the greatest record store on earth (It doesn’t exist anymore) Tower Records.

So, when her time was up on this earth (nearly 20 years ago), I tried pay tribute to her the best I could. I eulogized her talking about a lot of things that are in here. A lot of my gentle nature, my caring, and loving of other people all come from her. She showed me that it was OK to be soft and sensitive even if I am a guy and it’s not easy being a sensitive man.

I can see a lot more, but if this gets too long, no one’s ever gonna read it I know how these blogs work. So I want to say one final thing and it’s going to sound weird to those of you that are not familiar. One day, Marian and Martian in the space cadets (our little group comprised of my Godmother my sister and I) will be reunited again. I thank you for who I am and who I’m becoming.

Rest peacefully,

Your loyal co-Space Cadet

-aaa ❤️❤️❤️