My Aunt Melanie

Something I often talked about in my old blog with my Aunt Melanie. For those who have followed my old blog before, you would be pretty familiar with her. For those who don't know, let me tell you about her. She was my mom's younger sister, the middle child. She was more like a big sister to me than an aunt. We were only 11 years apart, in fact we were closer in age than my sister and I (who is 13 years younger than me). Today -June 19- marks 9 years since she lost her battle with breast cancer.

Mel was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer when she was 30 years old in the spring of 2000. The previous fall, she was misdiagnosed when she first discovered the lump. The doctor said it could have been from drinking too much coffee or the fact that she had a son in April 1998. This misdiagnosis may have been what cost Mel her life. By the time spring 2004 came around the cancer had spread, and she lost mobility in her legs, because of the tumors and was confined to a wheelchair. I had moved away to grad school in London in May and she died the next month. The last time I ever saw her was the day I graduated from university, I stopped in to see her and showed her my degree.

I say she was like a sister to me, because she lived with me and my parents when I was a kid. She and I used to drive up to St. Charles in her red Chrysler Daytona on the weekends to visit my grandparents, so we spent alot of time in that car together. One of my cherished pics is of the two of us with her car. My mom told me she was so mad when she left a can of 7UP in her new car and in exploded, I remember seeing the spots from it all over her dashboard. I can remember listening to MC Hammer can't touch this on cassette in her car!  When I was older I lived with her and her family the summer after my first year of university.

I still think about her all the time and miss her alot. I don't know if I ever really be over her death. It just seems so unfair that she was so young, 34, that is only 2 years older than I am. Scary. It's hearbreaking that she left her then six year old son behind. I try to think of the happy memories and stories: going to my first bingo with her, or going garage saleing with her, Something that still makes me smile is I wanted Alanis Morissette's album for my 15th birthday, and Mel bought it for me and sent it in the mail. There was a parental advisory on it for explicit lyrics and she highlighted it to bring it to my parents attention. Or my mom telling me when they worked together after watching part of Little Mermaid with me in the morning, Mel was singing Under the sea all day at work even though she didn't really know the lyrics. Or how she was so archnophobic she couldn't watch the scene with Aragog in the second Harry Potter movie.

In a random bit of weirdness. James Gandolfini  who played Tony Soprano died today of a heart attack. The Sopranos was one of Mel's favourite shows. While James' passing is sad and my heart goes out to his loved one, I can't help being slightly amused by the timing. I digress and will leave you with a one of my favourite pics of me and Mel and one of us with the Daytona.