3.15.2009

Aunt Mimi

My mom called Friday morning to tell me that Mimi died. Mimi is my Aunt Mary, my grandfather's sister, a great lady and a legend on the North Side of Syracuse. Mimi had been sick for a while, and when she suffered a fairly serious stroke a few weeks ago, it became a waiting game. The call wasn't a surprise. As much as I didn't want it to be true, I knew as soon as mom started with "I just wanted to let you know..." what it was about. I have dozens if not hundreds of stories about Aunt Mimi, though I'm not sure how they play to someone who didn't know her. Then again, it's hard to imagine that there even are people who didn't know her. She seemed to know everyone in Syracuse. Once during my high school years when I was working at Wegmans, I heard her enter the store as my shift at the cash register began. Over the course of the next four hours, I heard her talking to people she knew, first to my right in the bakery section, then over a bit in the deli, then straight ahead down the dairy aisle, back past the meat, over into the grocery aisles, and finally off to my left in produce. When my shift ended, Aunt Mimi was still shopping.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry for your loss. My condolences to your family, as well.