Another Aunt, Gone...So Few Left

It wasn't until I heard my aunt talking at a family function years ago that I had a relative who shared a name with a famous actress. But we never knew her as Elizabeth Taylor, only Beth.

She was much to spunky to be an Elizabeth...

Beth suited her better.

Beth passed away yesterday, slipped from us and to the loving embraces of so many parents, siblings, and siblings-in-law. She and her husband Dave are all that remain of the Lester and Margaret Taylor children and their spouses. Twelve children (of which, my father was #9 of 12...), eleven siblings and their spouses no longer with us.

I've known Aunt Beth all my life. What a character she was. And her laugh could echo throughout any building, any space. Like most of the women I know from that generation, she went through a lot. It's been decades when she had her first replacement surgery. She used to joke she was mostly bionic. There's truth in her words. Then came the other health issues, and finally, the sum of the problems proved too great, even for as strong a woman as Beth was.

My parents adopted us kids later in life. My mom's father was born in 1900, and my father's father was born in 1885. I was placed in a family where we were losing family members almost from the beginning. There's been a lack of deaths in the family of late, mostly because my parent's siblings are all gone. Of the twenty-six aunts and uncles, I'm down to four, each of them in their late 80s and early 90s...so few left.

Last month it was Coralle--this month, Beth. As I age, more and more family--the ones I've known--are on the other side. Now, Beth's there, too, free from all the pain her physical body provided. Another person that welcomed me and my siblings into their family as if we were flesh and blood is no longer here. Her absence creates a void, a void filled with sadness and loss. It's a testament of how important she was to my family, my parents, and her friends. Good-bye Beth--never Elizabeth--but Beth. And she wore the name well.