This is an obituary to my dear Auntie Judy who passed away in America.
When I grew up in Australia I had an older brother. I got three younger brothers so we were a family of seven, five kids and my parents. My father’s brother Vince was in Australia and when he married Auntie Judy I had an uncle and an auntie, my parents and four brothers. I occasionally said I never knew what it was like to have relatives in Australia. My grandparents were all in Europe. Only when I myself came to visit Europe and stayed with my mother’s cousin’s family in Regensburg and her daughter took me to the cemetery and started talking about all their relatives in the churchyard and some of them were my distant relatives, then I realised what an extended family was.
But that’s not entirely true. Uncle Vince and Auntie Judith were there too. They were there at the beginning. But then they went to America, so I forgot. Then their daughter Monique came to visit us in Australia. And she was only two years old and my father bounced her on his knees, so I got jealous. But I remember staying with Uncle Vince and Auntie Judy when I was very little. I must have been about three years old myself, and it was before Monique was born.
I spent a night with them. Maybe it was when my brother was born. I remember Auntie Judy giving me a bath in their big bathtub. We didn’t have a bath tub. We only had a shower. She was worried that I would slip, or drown, or wet my hair. She was worried that I would be scared sleeping alone in their big bed. Dear Auntie Judy. I just sent your photos to Monique and she was so happy. Now I want to share them with the world. Rest in peace. God bless you.