Aunties

So was I, AlieOxon. I was still in my thirties and I thought great-aunt sounded older than grandmother! I love being both though.

My sister was very disconcerted when she found she was going to become a great-auntie!

I love being aunty and great aunty! Although they all live far away, I keep involved with them. All lovely people and children!

Great aunts were another kettle of fish! Great Aunt Maggie, my late great uncle's well-off widow, lived in a huge house and employed housekeeper after housekeeper because none would stay for any length of time. She looked just like a witch in a fairy tale book, with a hooked nose and a droopy chin, always wearing a black velvet band around her neck. Eventually she ended up in a nursing home in St Andrews, mostly bedridden. As a student I used to go to visit, partly out of a sense of family duty but, I must admit that she was usually good for a 10/- note. Well, I was a hard-up student. She died at the age of 102, much to the relief, I imagine, of the nursing home staff.

Horrible thought gettingonabit!

jane I read that as "*whisky kisses* .

Actually I remember having to submit to whiskery kisses from one great aunt. She was very kind to us though -always arrived with a wet parcel of fish in her handbag. They don't make great aunts like they used to!

I had a Bopa-Bopa Jane. She wasn't my auntie though but my Gran's sister.

Annie did you call them Bopa? We did for our Welsh aunties.

We had aunties who baked.lovely cake, ones who made dresses of varied acceptability. One who slipped us a sneaky Babysham and ones we were not so keen on, with sloppy kisses.

One very bossy one who had no children of her own. My brother and I were sitting on the beach train in Brighton ready to set off. She came screaming at us , like a harpy and dragged us off saying we weren't allowed to go. My parents had given us the money and my brother loved trains.I nearly died of embarrassment.

She made funny dresses with bright patterns and lots of rick rack braid. She had absolute tantrums when my mother's sister made my confirmation dress. I did love her, I suppose she. couldn't help being a controlled freak.

Family fun!

The greats Jane? Five didn't have children . Being paternal and maternal greats they didn't get on , thankfully one lot was in North Wales and one lot in South Wales, I seemed to spend summer Holidays on trains , a very confused child really, the Anglesey group didn't speak English and some of the Glamorganshire didn't speak Welsh , thank you letters took a lot of concentration ?, the only time they United was when I chose to become Anglican , the north were Calvanists, the south Baptists , my poor mother didn't help that I demanded the godfather I chose was RC .

Aww they sound great Anniebach. Did they not have children of their own or were they part of the sad surplus?

I had eight Aunts and one of them I adored, I could not have chosen between her and my mother , named my first born for her and my elder granddaughter has the name as a second name , live part of the week with parents and part of the week with my Aunt. She was my best friend too. My great Aunts , oh dear, I was born a year after my paternal grandmother died and was named for her , my maternal grandmother died in childbirth , seven great aunts appointed themselves substitute grandmothers to me , I had three sisters and seven female cousins but made no difference , anyone else have five school satchels and seven Parker pens when they passed their eleven plus?

Well it wasn't much fun jingl

KatyK that sounds horrific!

anno

What a lovely post anno

I've just remembered DH's aunts. When we were first married we had to live with his parents for a while. I was 19 when we married and 20 when I had DD. His mum seemed very intimidating to me. She was a large scary woman who didn't like me much, as I was very shy. She had three equally large and intimidating sisters who used to visit daily whilst my DH was at work. I was there with a new baby without much of a clue what I was doing. They used to march in, pick the baby up, pick flies with how I was looking after her, question me about how I was 'looking after their sister' and say things like 'our sister said you left her alone whilst you took the baby to the shops'. She wasn't ill or anything. I was SO relieved when we got our own place.

I had the ideal aunt. My mum's sister, she lived round the corner with Granny until she married at the age of 40. She was my godmother and was always there for me. She was blind in one eye because of a bad dose of measles in her childhood but taught me to ride a bike. I soon found that when I rode on her left she couldn't watch me, but I didn't take advantage - well, not often. When she met her future husband, he would come for her on a Saturday night and we three would be waiting for him too - he would produce pennies from behind our ears, and do many other conjuring tricks. How tolerant they were, when they must have been longing to be off and away together. I was their bridesmaid at the age of 13 and felt so important. They remained very important to me when they moved away. When I was at Uni and they were in Yorkshire, they would send me small Wensleydale cheeses and Harrogate toffees. No wonder I got fat!Latterly, having no children and grandchildren of their own, they treated our children as GC and were loved as extra grandparents. At 80 my aunt had a stroke. Later, a fall resulted in a fractured hip and she gradually became more and more confused.The last time I saw her in a care home, when she was 90 and very unwell, I know that she recognised me as she grasped my hand. When she died, my uncle was also poorly and died eight days later. We buried them together in the village churchyard as they would have wanted. I still miss them.

I never knew my aunties really as they lived in a different country and we only saw them occasionally. My two sisters are wonderful aunties/great aunties to my DD and DGD. I think (hope) I am a goood aunty to my three nephews who are all now young men. They include us in their lives a lot

I had three aunties, all of whom died young. My favourite auntie was someone I could confide in. It was her I turned to when I had a baby aged only 18. She was kind, generous with her time and was always around to offer advice. Sadly she died of breast cancer aged only 55 and I still miss her very much.

Another of my aunties was very elegant and stylish. She was quite posh (compared to us who lived in a council house). She had a nice, gentle nature but was overpowered by my uncle who always seemed to speak over her. She also died very young (late 50's) and was quickly replaced by a loud, obnoxious, unstylish, witch of a woman, when my uncle remarried within months of her sudden death. .

My third auntie was very beautiful when she was younger which is probably all she had going for her. Dull as dishwater, not very bright and quite childish. She and my uncle never had children and she was always very uncomfortable around us kids. My late grandad used to say that my uncle (his son) only married her for her looks as she had very little else going for her.

I had no 'real' aunties on Mum's side. She had several brothers, only one of them had a lovely wife, Aunty Hilda. The others hadn't married for various reasons. mum's only sister died in infancy 'of a broken heart' when her dad went off to WW1.
Several aunties on Dad's side. One, Aunty Annie, was lovely who I recall died after falling into the fire after a stroke when I was quite young. I recall whole family's distress. Her son and daughter were then looked after by 'Aunty May' their next door neighbour as their Dad was a coal miner. Tough times, tough women to match.
I'm Aunty to my dear sister's two lovely sons and keep in touch and we all get on well.
DH's family dead loss I'm afraid so don't even know where most of our nieces and nephews are

I HAD 2 "proper" aunties, my mother`s sister and my father`s sister. I always got on well with my mother`s sister, Auntie Hilda, she was only 19 years older than me, and always seemed young. My father`s sister I spent every summer holiday from school with her and my uncle, we lived in Yorkshire and they were the other side in Lancashire. I adored her, then they emigrated to Australia when I was 9, she came back a few years later after my uncle died, but she`d changed, become quite snobby, we never got on that well anymore, sadly. I had a great aunt on my mother`s side, Auntie Rose, she was lovely, the sort of person who would strike up a conversation with anybody she met when out. When I lived with my grandma from age 13 till getting married, she`d come to stay, but she was a staunch Labour voter, and my grandma had voted Conservative all her life, so there were some lively discussions! I missed her terribly when she died.

Oh, great aunts - now then! I had a Great Aunt Mary. Always wore long dark Victorian style frocks with little lace inserts at the bosom, lisle stockings, buttoned shoes and a hat with cherries bobbing about on it. She was very intelligent, just a tad eccentric, had a cat called Cat (very puzzling to a 5 year old) and used to take her earthenware jug up the road to the pub off-licence window every evening to have it filled with stout, much to my grandmother's shame (she was more into sweet sherry ). She'd been married to a police sergeant, eventually, after being secretly engaged for 10 years because his mother didn't like her. I thought she was great, and one of my daughters has Mary as her middle name.

Oh, nostalgia for aunts! Nellie who at 90 unexpectedly announced 'I hate that name'!' She reinstated her real name and enjoyed the next 14 years as Ellen. I still miss her Victoria sponges and find myself about to buy her a jar of damson jam or Thornton's toffee. She loved 'When I am old I shall wear purple' so we made sure she had purple jumpers.
And the others, hardworking, reliable, loving and loved. Wish I had more than one left to reminisce and laugh with now.