AUNT KATIE

   Everybody in the world ought to have an Aunt Katie.  She was my grandfather's sister on my mom's side of the family, but my dad and his mother happened to live upstairs from her when he was about three. She took care of my dad a lot, and eventually got to know my mother because Aunt Katie insisted that everyone should know everyone else. I got to know her because she came to our house every Wednesday and ironed and cleaned and cooked and babysat.  Sometimes she'd bring my cousin Jimmy with her and she'd make us noodle soup for lunch.  She'd usually make the dinner on Wednesday's too, and my dadi would drive her home in the evening.  She had different days where she'd do pretty much the same thing for the other relatives, and more than fifty years later, when we all get together, we still talk about Aunt Katie....like we did Saturday night at my nephew's graduation party.
   We were all sure that we were Aunt Katie's favorite. ( I do know for a fact that I was actually the chosen one).  Actually that was really her gift...to make each one of us feel that we were special.  It's remarkable that Aunt Katie had so little and also such an abundance in her life.  Her face was burned and scared when she was very young when her long hair caught fire, but I never remember any of us even being aware of that. She lived very simply, usually in just a room or two, but we all loved going to see her. That was partly because her house always smelled like fresh baked goods...and that was because she baked all the time. If you just happened to pop in on her on a Sunday morning, she whip up bacon and eggs, fresh rolls just out of the oven, and she'd squeeze a couple of oranges for juice. Lots of us still make or at least attempt to make her Hungarian pull apart.
  I often took her to church on Sundays..."God's not asleep you know". She also show up when I sang in the choir...and I'd see her beaming in the pew. I remember taking her to a piano concert once at Heinz Hall where she leaned over at one point and said (much too loud) " they ought to hear YOU play the piano". Aunt Katie was always on your team...always a steady and encouraging fan.
   While I'm sitting here typing I have Aunt Katie's picture in front of me...and it's a beautiful morning at the lake..I can kinda hear her saying " You'd better get out there and start pulling weeds boy!..so maybe I'll continue tomorrow.  Any tribute to Aunt Katie is going to take more than one blog.  In the meantime..Happy Birthday to someone who lives on in a whole lot of hearts...Aunt Katie, we just never stop talking about you.