My Aunt Susie

Top left: Susie in our first home at our house warming party.... then my grandpa (her dad) and Scott and I as kiddos
Bottom left: Her holding Scott at 3 days old .... and then her with Mindi and I at our 16th birthday party at Disneyland. Well, as most of you know, my aunt Susie past away this last Saturday. To read more about that, check out my mom's blog at the right of this entry under Smith's...

My Aunt suffered from Lupus for the latter half of her life... She suffers no more :)

This entry isn't to tell you how she died or all the obituary stuff like that. I thought I would simply share with you all some kind memories I have of her and if you have any you would like to share go for it. Most of you who read this didn't know my aunt.

She was always there. We were all the family she really had. She always treated me like a daughter. She did not have children, so Scott and I were like the only children in her life, really.

On my 20th birthday we found out that she was in kidney failure (I know there is a more medical word for that but you get my point). I remember going threw the process of her having to deal with getting her shunt (for dialysis)... dealing with the LONG three hours + of sitting there in a depressing dialysis center. I went a few times to keep her company. If you know me well, I didn't like all the blood that you see in a place like that. I remember crying thinking how depressing it must be to spend three to four days there a week. A WEEK!! No more vacations.... (Unless you went on a special vacation that had dialysis.)

Anyways...
I wanted this to be happy memories so I will get to a happy memory. Sometimes it seems that to get to the happy memory, you have to endure hard moments.

Fast forward to just after I turned 22.

Susie got a kidney. She was so excited and over come when my mom offered to give her a kidney. (For those of you who have read this far in my blog and don't know, my Aunt Susie is my mom's sister).

The kidney gave her 6 more years of NO dialysis, vacations, time with family and friends....

HAPPY things I will remember:
- Talking about all the movies and TV shows we followed.
- Christmas eve, sharing a couch, boobie rubs
- Her finger nails
- Joking around together
- LAUGHING A LOT
- Libby (her dog)
- What a great gift giver... she always got us great gifts, from the heart...
- How much Haley loves her
- Her Red bug
- How sweet she was
- Her telling me all the funny stories of my mom as a kid... how they would get into trouble laughing at the dinner table...
- She was very real...
- being there for me when both kids were born...
- every birthday, or holiday she was there!
- Making the Cheese Cakes for Jim and my wedding Cake :)
- Making most of the cheese cakes for my birthday parties... I asked her and she always was willing.
- Her "doggie talk"

Well, for now I am going to stop... :) I am sure there is more.... and I am sure you may not understand all those memories :) but that's ok :) I am not really writing this for you anyways... this is for me :)