I’m not sure where I’m going with this yet. It came to mind as I was trying to sleep last night:
Of all the members of the family, she is the most looked up to. Her 90 plus years not withstanding, she commands deference with just the tone and confidence in her voice. Great Aunt Lil was a distinctive woman from an early age. Her quest for knowledge out shined all the rest of her family, which would explain why she is the one we all go to when we need advice. There was not a problem, issue or need that we had that she did not have some quote to guide us on our way.
Think of all of the experiences she had, living through World War I, the Depression, and World War II in her young life. As she grew older, it would be the Cold War, Race for Space, and Vietnam. Always embracing the present she became part of the technological age. She owns her own laptop, frequents her Facebook page, interacts with hundreds of friends she has acquired over time. This is a woman of class. Her life is a dream that we can aspire to.
“What really matters is what you do with what you have,” she would say, quoting H.G. Wells or “It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change,” (Charles Darwin).
