Uncle Don's Frogs

I've been kind of bummed out because last week I learned that my aunt (my mom's only sister) will soon be put permanently in a nursing home. Her mind has been slowly slipping over the last several years and it is getting to the point that my uncle Don can no longer take care of her. I was very close to both of them during my childhood. My mom was closer to her sister than any of her brothers. I have many dear childhood memories with my aunt and uncle. It seemed like they always had a new car, so they always took my mom and I along on mini-vacations. I probably never would have taken any childhood vacations if it were not for my aunt and uncle. They have been married for fifty-three years. That's a long time.

This picture was taken during Christmas 2003. Aaron and I traveled back to the Midwest and we spent a lovely evening at their house. We ended up sitting around the kitchen table listening to their stories of being teenagers in the late 1940's in Iuka, IL (population 200). They told us how they hung out at a small "juke joint" called the "Beehive". It was not difficult to imagine the wooden shacks,swimming holes, and pranks between friends. It was wonderful to hear the stories of how they met and started dating. My husband and I found ourselves transported to another time when life was simpler and fun almost seemed easier to come by. We left that night with a sense of longing for "the good old days" and a sense of mourning for the passing of time. I could already tell that my aunt's mind was getting slower.

As we hurried out to our car in the December chill, I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I noticed that my uncle Don had taken a small terrycloth towel and placed it around the shoulders of the cement frogs which grace his front sidewalk. He had used a very small safety pin to fasten it with. My heart swelled as I realized that silly, little gesture said a lot about the type of person my Uncle Don is. I have always enjoyed his kooky sense of "Uncle Don humor", but over time he has also been a loving and dedicated caretaker to my aunt. For awhile now, the roles have been reversed and he has taken care of my aunt the way a traditional wife takes care of her husband. The way a seventy year-old man takes care of cement frogs, little cement frogs with tragically endearing frowns huddled together on a tiny parkbench on the front lawn.

Although my aunt's mental decline comes as no abrupt surprise, it does not make it any easier to deal with. Aaron and I are planning to take a trip back there in June, so that my mother and the rest of my family can finally meet Nova. I so look forward to my family getting to meet this little bundle of love that brings me so much joy everyday. I had hoped that we would be able to visit with my aunt and uncle again and maybe hear more enthralling tales of their vintage teenage antics. Unfortunately, it looks as though we will be visiting my aunt in the nursing home, and then I'm not sure that she will be in a place to even know who I am. I am so grateful that I stopped in the frigid night air to take this photo of Uncle Don's cement frogs.