My Beloved Aunt Connie

So I haven't been keeping up with my grateful posts this November like I have in the past.  This is because my mom's younger sister, my aunt who lived here in the area, passed away very unexpectedly. She went into the emergency room with abdominal pains and a cough, she was admitted and transferred to a larger hospital, and three weeks later she is gone.  She was a wonderful aunt and I am very grateful to have had her in my life.  I have so many wonderful memories of her and she is definitely a huge reason why I felt loved when I was younger.  I was very needing of affection when I was smaller and she was willing to hug and cuddle with me constantly while other relatives would get tired and push me away quickly.  While she was quick to offer her advice and criticism of everything, she meant it only to help and she was full of compassion and acceptance of the choices that people made.  She was constantly trying to be a better person and even took college courses into her senior years.  She was a truly beautiful person inside and out. She was smart and creative and never gave herself enough credit.  She was so loving and so loved and will be missed immensely by so many people.  I'm grateful for all the time I had with her and I'm especially grateful that she settled so close to where I ended up so that I got to spend so much time with her over the last decade and that she and my girls got to enjoy each other.