Water Can Be Thick As Well

They say that “blood is thicker than water.”  They usually speak about that when referring to family and how it applies to allegiance among family members versus those outside the family.  Well, I am here to say that is not always true.

Case in point?  My “aunt”.  She passed away yesterday evening around 6:15 p.m. after a very long fight with multiple cancers.  It was her leukemia that ultimately did her in.  Anyway, she is “water” and she and her husband were thicker than “blood”.  What I mean to say is that she is my aunt who wasn’t my aunt.

I am generally a relatively intelligent individual.  It embarrasses me to admit that it took me until high school to “do the math” and realize that Auntie Connie and Uncle Mike were not blood relatives.  I remember asking my mom about it and she laughed and said something like “I wondered when you were going to ask about that.”  Their last names were all wrong and wouldn’t fit into the family tree.

Turns out that my uncle was a childhood friend of my dad.  There were together their entire lives and my mom and my aunt grew very close as well.  They were best friends.  The four boys in my family were raised calling them aunt and uncle and, believe me, they were just as much an aunt and uncle as blood relatives, perhaps even more so in many of the cases.

So, blood is not always thicker than water.  Sometimes, water can be thicker than blood.  When all is said and done, I was blessed to know those two incredibly good individuals as Auntie Connie and Uncle Mike and I hope to see them again one day if I’m lucky enough to win the heavenly lotto. 🙂

Rest easy, Auntie Connie.  You deserve it for all the fight you gave these past few years.  You were a real inspiration to me and I hope I can muster at least half the pluck that you showed toward adversity.  Say hello to Uncle Mike for me.  Oh, yeah, and mom and day.  And grandma and grandpa.  And tell Mickey that I thought you were a great person.  Love you and miss you…