The Thing About Purple

L1

Her favorite color was purple.  

She was boisterous, audatious, and cantankerous at times. 

She loved her little sister. 

She loved coffee with her friends. 

She loved the Sunday morning newspaper comics.

I can picture her, cup of coffee in hand, robe and slippers, giggling loudly at Garfield. 

Her laugh could be heard for miles. As could her singing. 

She loved “soda runs”…. even when there wasn’t soda involved anymore. 

She loved the Fine Young Canibals and Roy Orbison. Equally.  And a good black and white western. 

She loved WWE.  She watched it as faithfully as she attended church. My son would sit on her lap, even as he got older. Her short legs could barely hold him, but they would sit together and discuss the ins and outs of wrestling, and who was champion of the world. 

She loved to give me a hard time with a twinkle in her eye, knowing that whatever she had told me to do…. I would do the opposite. 

When I was born, she reminded me constantly I came  screaming. Born to give people hell. Ready for the world. My god mother, my Aunt, was the kind of woman that pushed me in a different way to become me…and fight for that.  Push against the current if I have to. She was ornery and fiery. And loved to argue. And I hope the next time I see her….the first thing she will tell me was whether or not dinosaurs were on the ark (an argument of ours that lasted a decade) 

I sat with her the night before and held her hand for several hours, while the morphine dripped to keep her comfortable. When I first arrived she squeezed my hand back, knew I was there, and rubbed her thumb along the side of my own thumb, just as she had done whenever she held my hand throughout my whole life. Her nails were still polished from my last visit with her. A color she picked. Light purple. 

She went as I was driving home the next morning. The sun had just come up and the rays were bright. I was thankful for her peace but so sad for the loss to our tiny family.  

The sunset that first night, as briefly as I saw it, was purple, but thought to myself, “I hope she had a good first day feeling good.” And I know she had a hand in making that sky tinted just that color.  Her favorite.