Aunt Maudie

My Aunt Maudie recently passed away. She was in her nineties and was my Mom's last living sibling. She was a strong woman of God and was one of my favorite aunts. Her favorite Bible verse was Proverbs 3:6 - "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight," -and she lived it. Maudie always had a humorous way of looking at things and of telling family stories. I hadn't really thought about what impact she'd had on my life until days later when I was sitting in the restaurant at the Cumberland Falls Resort watching finches at a bird feeder and two squirrels below chasing after any fallen seed. It reminded me of sitting at Aunt Maudie's "picture" window and watching the various wildlife always seen in her yard. She would identify the different birds for us (probably how I knew the ones I was watching were finches) and then point out the different varieties of flowers that grew in her yard. We'd often take a walking tour of the yard and learn all kinds of things about nature and how God made each thing exactly the way it was for some specific purpose. She made it all so fun that even as we edged into our early teens we didn't really realize we were learning things. Thinking back, I realize that my love of nature, and for being in the woods, probably came from her. I live in my own woods now and I relish any chance I get to sit outside and enjoy a sunset or to watch the lizards playing. Aunt Maudie never had an opportunity to see the world from my front porch but I think she would have loved it as much as I loved looking out her "picture" window.