Whole Lotta Love!

 Did some yardwork at one of my aunt's house yesterday.  This is the house I practically grew up in.  It belonged to my grandmother and I probably spent more time there than I actually did at my own house.  When I was about 2 years old, we moved into a house around the corner from my grama's house.  It was behind the house right next door to hers.  Because my mom and I were always going to her house, my dad build a pathway with a gate going from our backyard to her backyard.  That way we didn't have to walk around the block.

I have many fantastic memories of being at her house.  Family get togethers with all my cousins, holidays, visits from out of state (out of country) relatives.  When I was 14, after my mom passed away, I think I spent every day at my gramas.  Just being around my aunts and grama was comforting to me.  After I grew up and had my own family, I wanted to give them that same comfort.  Grama's house was always so warm and welcoming.  Christmas Eve was an especially fun time.  Everyone got together at grama's house and Santa would come and visit every year.  It was a tradition that started in the early 1950's.

In 1999, my grama passed away and my aunt was now alone in the house.  Unfortunatley, as happens alot after a death or other major event, my aunt slowly fell into a sort of depression and just didn't know how to cope.  She stopped taking care of the house.  She no longer wanted visitors (in part because she was ashamed of the state of the house), Christmas Eve at gramas's stopped and although the tradition continues at my house, we all agree it's notquite the same.  Slowly grama's house fell into despair.  Attempts were made to help clean things up but no maintenance was done so over time, things would get out of control again.

Recently,  a letter from the city was sent out regarding the condition of the yard.  Many conversations were had among family about how to handle this and what to do but no action was taken.  On Friday, I saw my aunt and she mentioned the letter to me.  She seemed to not know what to do.  My husband Robert, offered to go over and begin the clean-up process in the yard and happened to call my cousin Larry who in turn offered to go help.  Another cousin caught wind of the situation and offered to go as well.  Larry talked to his brothers and sister and they decided to go help as well.  All this transpired from Friday to Saturday.

Yesterday, Sunday, they all showed up at my aunt's house at 8am.  I went to the store and bought waters and juices and went to deliver them about 8:30 and was immediatley filled with emotion when I drove up.  There were 13 adults and children, all working together to clean up the yard.  When I got out of the car, my aunt who lives in the house said she was happy to see all her family there.  I told her that everyone was there because they wanted to be.  No one made them go.  She kept saying she couldn't believe that they were there.  I had to tell her that everyone was there because they loved her and wanted to help her.  I also told her that now she just needed to accept that love.

We all worked very hard until 2pm.  We made much progress but didn't finish.  We felt good about what we were doing.  It was hard for all of us to see how the beautiful house we all grew up in, that was filled with so much joy and love, had now become such an eyesore with so much work needed.  There didn't seem to be life there anymore and it looked lonely.  By the time we left, it looked so much better and we could all envision what it would look like with attention and care.

My aunt has a hard time accepting help from anyone and that makes it hard for everyone who loves her to go and help her.  On the way to her house in the morning, I prayed that her house would be filled with love and respect, that there would be no resistance or anger.  I prayed that the spirit of God would be with us all while we took care of business and that the love we all have for each other would shine through and outweigh whatever negativity there would be.  My prayers were answered because what we experienced yesterday was incredible.  We all agreed that growing up, we didn't have much in terms of money.  We didn't live in big expensive houses, our parents didn't drive big expensive cars and we didn't have tons and tons of stuff.  We had the basics but we were rich in love.  We were brought up to love each other and help always.  I grew up watching my mom and my aunts helping my grama all the time in everything and anything she needed.  There was a strong bond between them and now we are teaching the same thing to our children.  When I saw the children working just as hard as the adults yesterday, it made me realize that we are passing that same love to our children and teaching them that family is the most important thing of all.