Great Aunt Minnie has been gone for many years now. Her last few years she spent lost in the fog and mist that is Alzheimer's. Though it may be tough to find any humor associated with the disease, there were some comical things she did. I will save them for another time as I want to tell you a story that involved her and my daughter, Kelly. Aunt Minnie always had a tissue or lacy handkerchief in her hand. She used it to swab her temple which, unrelated to the disease, constantly seeped water. I kid you not, and as far as I know, no one ever knew what caused it. When we were kids, we'd always say that her head leaked. She was certainly a sweet old lady and always dressed to the toes. She never left her house without her white hair perfect and her jewelry on. After she died, her husband gave all of her costume jewelry to my mother.
Now, let me tell you that my mother did not need any more costume jewelry. She had way too much of it before that kindhearted gift. Mother had many many matched sets of beads, pins and earrings in every color and style you can imagine. The combined jewelry took up two-thirds of a triple dresser.
One day my daughter and I were visiting my mother and something came up about jewelry. Mother told Kel to go through it all and take whatever she wanted. She pulled out drawer after drawer filled full and we all three sat on her bed, talking and laughing as we sifted through that treasure chest of baubles. Kel chose a few items to take home with her.
Some weeks later, my daughter calls me from her beauty salon and is dieing laughing. She tells me that she wore a pair of Aunt Minnie's earrings to work that day and everyone was commenting on how pretty they were. She replied that she really liked them, but that they hurt her ears terribly and she didn't think she was going to be able
to wear them.
On closer inspection, one of her co-workers discovered they were not earrings at all but those clips that were worn to dress up shoes a long time ago. They have metal prongs on each side that stuck in the shoe to hold them on. Kel said "I was so embarrassed", but then she remembered....and said "Well, no wonder Aunt Minnie's head leaked"!