The Red Candy Dish

The red candy dish...full of love, full of selflessness, full of compassion, full of caring...full of life.  The red candy dish sat on Auntie Gemma's coffee table full of candy; candy to be enjoyed by all.  My kids would enjoy their piece of candy during our visits to Auntie's house.  They would always ask for more candy and I would always reply "no".  Auntie would throw her hand in the air and say, "Aww, let 'em have another", and so they did.  Auntie died the day that Emilie and I arrived in Tennessee.  We did not tell Emilie as we did not want to upset her so far from home.  Strangely, Emilie talked alot about Auntie while in Tennessee.  After her NK cell infusion, Emilie had to have six injections every other day for two weeks.  While waiting for the nurse to arrive with Emilie's second shot, Emilie talked about how Auntie endured daily insulin shots because she was a diabetic and at that point, she decided that if Auntie could give herself an injection everyday without complaining, she could do it too.  Emilie then remembered the red candy dish that Auntie had and said that she so loved getting candy every time we went to Auntie's house.   I squashed my emotions as we sat quietly.  Emilie then said "Auntie was not a selfish person because she always had candy for kids even though she couldn't eat any of it herself because she had diabetes.  By the way, how is Auntie doing?".  Before I could answer, the nurse arrived and gave Emilie her shot to which she responded, "that wasn't so bad at all". 

Auntie Gemma...full of love, full of selflessness, full of compassion, full of caring...full of life.