On Sharing One's Birth Date With Someone Very Special

Aunt Essie & Uncle Bobby August 2001

While writing one's memoir I suppose the proper beginning would be that awesome day where it all began, and for me it was October 26, 1951.  Besides my mother and father, and siblings there was another very special person who was tickled pink to learn that I was born on the twenty-sixth day of October.  That very special person who had also been born on the twenty-sixth day of October is my Aunt Esther Dunwell.  She was married to my father's youngest brother Robert. 

Aunt Essie 2011, Warm Smile

Aunt Essie is one of the two remaining living aunts.  She is and always will be one of the most special and loving souls that I have ever met here on earth.  Aunt Essie is one of God's very special people sent here to earth to spread His message to everyone she meets, and sometimes that is done with just her smile!

Uncle Bobby met Aunt Essie in Texas.  They both had worked at a hospital for those with Tuberculosis.  This very lovely lady stole his heart, and all who have the pleasure of knowing her could very easily understand why that happened.

Lovely "Indian Princess" Aunt Essie

She was born into an American family of Mexican and American Indian decent in San Antonio, Texas.  Her mother died when she was very young, and she took over the maternal responsibilities in caring for her siblings.  At the age of eleven her father got sick, she went to work at the hospital for those with Tuberculosis, and contracted the dreaded disease.  She had a very hard childhood, but never complained about it.  She always spoke of it as a learning experience that gave her strength of character.

Nannie, Step-Grandfather Carl, Aunt Essie

Soon after they were married Aunt Essie and Uncle Bobby moved back to the Easton/Phillipsburg area, and set up housekeeping in Wilson Borough, PA.  I can remember going to visit as a child and Aunt Essie making us homemade tortillas sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Her Christmas Tree was covered in ethereal  layers of pure white angel hair. It had been the first time that I had ever seen such a divinely decorated Christmas tree that truly befit it's decorator. She captured the hearts of every member of our extended family. 

When I was a child every birthday was celebrated with the most adorable pinata that was hand made by Aunt Essie.  She made them for all of our birthdays. She is always creating something new in the arts and crafts.  Her local church in the Pocono Mountains often depended on her creations for charitable events.

Jamie and Anna-Jean

Jamie and his mother, Esther

Her story of motherhood is almost biblical.  She often prayed that God would bless her with a child, and when she was almost 40 years old she became pregnant, and she and Uncle Bob were blessed with a son,  Jamie.  Uncle Bob has since passed on, and Aunt Essie has moved to Florida to live with Jamie and his lovely wife Anna-Jean. 

February 2011, Kindred Spirits

I got to spend some time with Aunt Essie this past February when I traveled to Florida with my sister-in-law Joan.  We went to the beach one day, and she came to cousin Paula's home for dinner, and stayed the night.  We were bed buddies that night and shared a wonderful conversation about our ideals, concerns, and memories of days gone by.  It was a very special experience with this very extraordinary woman, a blessing in my life, who shares my day of birth, the twenty-sixth day of October.

Beach Cape Canaveral,FL 02/2011

On Sharing One's Birth Date With Someone Very Special

* One day many years ago my youngest daughter Jamiann came home from Alpha Public School with a new friend Jill.  I very soon learned that her mother's name was also Diane and that.....you guessed it....she was born on the twenty-sixth day of October!