Today I and my family will say goodbye  to my Aunt Lois. She lost her battle with cancer a week ago. She was such a burst of sunshine and her presence will be greatly missed. We all have our favorite “Aunt Lois” story and I’m going to share mine:

My aunt had long, beautiful hair but she didn’t know what to do with it. The summer before I began graduate school, the church planned a trip to Hot Springs, AR. My mother and I went to pick up Aunt Lois and I walked into the house and was greeted by my aunt. I asked her about her new ‘do.

She said, “There’s nothing wrong with my hair; it looks good.”

I looked at my cousin who gave a ” you know how she is” look.  Everything was wrong with her hair. It looked like a bird had made its best with curly wig hair. She explained that she used rods to achieve this “look.”

There was no set curl pattern. The hair at the roots was frizzy, followed by semi-curls. The ends were spiked and reminded my of a cartoon who stuck sometimes in a socket.

My cousin said, “I asked if she was going to wear it.”

My aunt replied, “Shoot yeah! I was up all night doing this style.”

It was a disaster. Everyone we encountered had the same look: What in the world?

We laughed, playfully teased her about it. I even drew a picture. But she was unbothered. She wore that style with pride. No one else could do that. But that’s just the type of person she was.

She loved to laugh and make everyone around her laugh. She loved God and it showed through her unfailing love of people.

Rest on, my sweet aunt. I’ll see you again someday.