In Memory of My Aunt Collette

This Sunday, my Cousins, Aunts, and I are walking in the 2008 Making Stride Against Breast Cancer. Here is a great pic of my Aunt, that just says it all.

Here is a little something I wrote about my Aunt before she passed away.

I guess it is hard to put into words how and why someone has impacted someone else’s life. Or ways to describe how people truly are and the way they are perceived by others. I am sitting here thinking of words that would describe who a person is inside and out, for example, hope, love, strong-willed, exceptional, passionate, powerful, fighter, determined, laid back, and dedicated.

I guess now that Joe and I are having our first child I don’t want them to be just one word, I want them to be all the words that I described. You need to be balanced in life ready for everything, like Collette. You need to be strong in life and always have to remember that things can be tough and difficult, but you have to remember that you never can give up no matter what it is. Maybe applying for college but didn’t have the grades, but still applied to first choice schools anyways, or maybe they will try out for the varsity team, but they know that they are not the top player. Hopefully, they will understand that the most important thing is that they tried and didn’t let life pass them by, because they were scared to try and fight for what they wanted. Or they are true to themselves and wasn’t someone else, they were who they were no matter what other people said about them, like Collette. They honored themselves, by doing what came from their heart, which is the most admirable thing a person can do, it doesn’t matter if they made the team. The thing is no one can take away the fact that they tried. You have to be multi layered, you have to exhibit more than one emotion, and you have to be true.

I believe that is what Collette has taught me and Joe. She is literally fighting for survival. I admire such will and determination she has exhibited. I only wish that I could be as strong as she has been. Kara asked Joe and I to describe a specific event or encounter with Collette. I guess that was hard for me to do, not because I didn’t have such great times with her, or done some really crazy things with her, or didn’t have some wonderful memories of her. But I think my greatest experiences with her, is her just being her. She is who she is; she is everything I have described above but so much more. She doesn’t have children of her own, but I think she viewed all the cousins as her children, which made me see that family is extremely important, top of the list before friends. I think the most important and valuable thing to give to someone else is not money, gifts, etc, it is the integrity, and the way you live your life, also to maybe learn from their mistakes so you could avoid them. I believe that is what she has given me and Joe. Life lessons. I truly believe everything, and everyone that you encounter, maybe your neighbor, your teacher, or that special Aunt, like Collette, shapes you. I believe you have shaped us, you have taught us to laugh, live up life, be true to ourselves, shoot off a firework, put on a production for the family during Christmas, and just getting the cousins together for an outing just for the heck of it, and in turn Joe and I will teach our child all those things, okay maybe not shoot off a firework. And, honestly I can say to you that we are going to be hopeful, lovers, strong-willed, exceptional, passionate, powerful, fighters, determined and dedicated. And you definitely had something to do with that, which in my mind is the best gift you have given us and for our newest edition to the family, our precious baby. For that we want to thank you and we ever so grateful.