Goodnight Aunt Gerrie - I love you.

Tonight I'm thinking about my Aunt Gerrie who passed away today. I wish I had a photo of her that I could post, or even better, that I could translate the images of her from my memory. But lacking that ability, the best I can do is describe one of my favorite photos, which includes my mom, and may or may not also have included her sister, Gerrie. In my mind, it is a photo of the two sisters. One day, when I have a chance to see the photo again, I'll find out if the other woman in the photo is really my aunt, or if it's only that my memory has preserved it that way.

In the black and white photo in my mind, my mom and her sister Gerrie are posing for the camera with arms around each other. They are wearing matching shirts with horizontal stripes, and they have short, boyish haircuts. They are probably about 25. They are grinning like mad, and both have placed black paper over their front teeth so that they look like gap-toothed hillbillies, or maybe pirates. I've loved that photo since I was a kid, and it's the one that keeps appearing in my thoughts.

My Aunt Gerrie and Uncle Mel lived in Santa Ana and owned an art gallery in Orange called Art Angles, which they started in 1970. According to the text on the website, it has since been passed down to an old family friend. I cannot separate the memory of my Aunt from her beloved gallery where she also gave art lessons and my uncle did custom framing and fabricated lucite boxes for museum exhibits.

They were also very active and well-loved members of Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana, where the memorial service will be held on Thursday.

The last time I saw Aunt Gerrie and Uncle Mel was in 1995, when I was working in Fullerton and living in a rented room in Seal Beach. We got together several times during the months that I was there - for Cuban food, for do-it-yourself sushi, to see the movie, The River Wild, and once to stroll through Virgin Records, where my aunt looked for a videotape of Cirque de Soleil. We had bagels and cream cheese in their sunny, Santa Ana kitchen, and they framed two posters for me, which are hanging in my house back in Idaho. I've always been thankful for those times we spent together because it was then that I really got to know and love my aunt and uncle. And the next time I have a chance to go through those old photos - I'll find that one of my mom and her sister playing pirates.