Party On....

I was thinking today about the phone call with my Aunt Dolly yesterday. In order to "slow down," as her doctor suggested, my soon-to-be-94-year-old Aunt no longer entertains. Not that there are that many family members and friends near the old family home anymore. Most of the family has scattered now. When I was growing up in the 1950s, mostly everyone lived within a short car or bus ride away from our grandparents' home. And mostly all of the family friends have now either moved away or passed away. My aunt lives alone in the house built by my grandfather in 1920, in the neighborhood filled with houses that my grandfather's construction company built in the 1920s.

My grandmother's home was always filled with family and friends. Any day of the week could be a party.... all they needed was someone to drop by unannounced and they were invited to stay for lunch or dinner. Out came the "good" tablecloths and napkins, the fancy china and glassware, and my grandfather would go into the wine celler for a bottle of his home-pressed wine.

My Aunt Dolly would "dress up the table," as she called it. Into the center of the dining room table would be some sort of centerpiece that she would pull together from items around the house. Anything from simple Lilies of The Valley from my grandmother's garden, or a collection of little porcelain dolls.... or even a simple arrangement of fruit and nuts in a beautiful bowl. My Aunt Dolly knew how to "make nice," as my dad and my uncles called it.

That art of "making nice" was totally absorbed by me over the years. I spent as much time with my Aunt Dolly as I did with my parents, and it was always an adventure to be in that house. Aunt Dolly kept boxes of "odds and ends" in the attic.... hat boxes filled with ribbons and pretty cards and bows, flowers and beads, colorful magazine ads, broken bits of jewelry and fancy beaded trims. Aunt Dolly threw nothing away if she thought she could re-use it for something else, whether it be for a centerpiece or for gift-wrapping a package.

Everything my aunt did, I do now. I have boxes of ribbons and beaded trim to use for gift-tags and placecards. I keep the fronts of pretty greeting cards and use them to make invitations, postcards, and placecards. Other boxes hold watercolors and art pencils, and then there's my storage closet of shelves filled with assorted holiday decorations.

My husband and I don't have family living close by, and our family up north hardly ever comes to visit, but our home is always filled with friends. Either a small group of four or eight, or a house filled with thirty. I make centerpieces for the tables just the way my aunt did--- not by ordering something frilly and fancy from the florist, but by taking little treasures from our home and arranging them in such a way that makes our friends smile. And by trial and error and lots of practice, I've made decorative little topiaries for the dining room table... for Valentine's Day, for St. Patty's Day, for Easter.

Somehow, Aunt Dolly's talent for entertaining was planted in my heart and soul and it's alive and well and constantly imaginative. For as long as I'm on this earth, my Aunt Dolly's spirit will live on. And when I'm no longer walking on this planet, I have a feeling that my young friend C will be carrying on the tradition. C is doing with me what I used to do with my Aunt Dolly.... she watches me closely as we prepare for a holiday or a party, she saves all the placecards I make and all the cards I send her. She asked me last year to show her how to brew and pour tea, and when I found the perfect little teapot for her, you would've thought I'd given her the world.

And maybe I did. One of the things my Aunt Dolly has always said is that "if you can make everyone feel comfortable in your home, it will mean the world to them."

My Aunt Dolly means the world to me, and she always has. She never had children of her own, and she was always very close to her nieces and nephews. When I was a kid, Aunt Dolly would tell me "You're my girl...... you're my girl." I think Aunt Dolly liked having me around because I was a patient child, and I did what I was asked to do without giving her a hard time. She would just hate it when one of my cousins would say "But why?!" Aunt Dolly would raise her eyebrows and her whole face would change into a fierce scowl.... she seldom had to give a reason to that question because whoever asked it would've either run off to another part of the house or just started doing whatever had been requested.

When Aunt Dolly was younger, she looked like Loretta Young.... just beautiful. And to me, Aunt Dolly is still beautiful. She has grace and charm, confidence and control. She can entertain the neighbors, or entertain royalty..... no matter who comes into her house, they will feel welcome. She may, however, tell you to "take off your shoes.... I just did the floors." That was an old family joke--- Aunt Dolly would always have "just done the floors," no matter what day of the week, or what time of day you happened to come by.

Aunt Dolly. I thought about her all day today, and I can't stop thinking about her tonight. I just spoke to her yesterday afternoon.... she sounded fine. A little tired from the medication she takes for her backache, but other than that, she had no complaints. "How can I complain? I'm 94 years old and still a size 6."--- that's what she told me yesterday. She also told me that her body has changed over the years.... that her size 6 body now doesn't look like the size 6 body she had in the 1940s. "You would think that with all the stairs in this house that I walk up and down all day long, I'd have legs like Ginger Rogers."

I told my aunt that even Ginger Rogers doesn't have legs like Ginger Rogers anymore.