For the past 5 years, Thomas has been enamored by his great great aunt Marion Bailey. She would have been 99 years old in less then a month. Over the past years, she has attended every single concert with the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra and Thomas has played for her privately in her home and assisted living facilities she has resided in. Not just for her, but during the summer and Christmas as well. And every single time, Thomas would look over and see a huge smile on her face, as if he was HER son.
As the past few years have quickly slid by, so wasn't aunt Marions memory and ability to be as active as she always had been. But I think this was also a reason her and Thomas got so close. If we wanted to spend time with her, we would have to do so in an intimate setting. There were so many times she wanted him to bring his violin with him while visiting and he did just that because you could instantly see the joy she received from listening to him play.
As her memory faded, she quite often forgot my name(THomases father) but when Thomas entered the room, her eyes lit up, her lips curled into adoration and we heard "Oh Thomas!" as she held out her arms. He didn't need that welcome though because his arms were already open and ready to give love to her.
He constantly made bread, banana bread, cookies, sweet treats and cakes for her once he found out the sweet tooth she had. He wanted to make sure she knew just what she meant to him because of the reverence she showed him.
Every single concert she attended, Thomas would walk out, sit down and the very first person he would wave to was aunt Marion in the front row, even before acknowledging his own parents, hahahaha. I remember so well we would be waiting on aunt Marions daughter, Carole, to bring her into the building before the concert and it usually took a little more time because she was in a wheelchair. Thomas would pace back and forth, afraid that he wouldn't be able to see her before the concert.
I could go on and on about all the love that was obvious between the two of them, but then yesterday came. We had just visited aunt Marion Monday and brought her a pound of chocolate fudge. She was sleeping, Thomas walked in, walked over, bent over and whispered to aunt Marion. She opened her eyes and after the usual hugs and smiles and kisses, Thomas gave her the fudge and the look on her face will be something that neither of us will ever forget.
She smiled bigger then we had ever seen as she clutched the fudge and held it against her chest with a passion even I had ever seen, and I have known her the 64 years I have been alive. She had an accident a few days before and fractured her spine so she was bed ridden and under medication that severely limited her speech and coherence, but God must have helped her because she again blurted out "Oh Thomas!"
We left after our visit. feeling sprightly and content after spending time with this beautiful woman. After we returned home, Thomas wanted to play her favorite hymn and send it to her to listen to, not knowing if she would be able to hear it herself. He played In The Garden and sent it to her cell phone.
We went about our day yesterday and when we came inside after THomas spending some time on his dirtbike, he got the message from a family member via text. I will never forget he just froze in his step. He stared at me and I thought he was joking around with me again. I waited a few seconds and he blurted out "She's gone."
I knew immediately and before I could even walk the 3 steps to him, Thomas got emotional. "Aunt Marion is dead." All I could do was hug him and try to make it better. This was the time to let it out rather then immediately try to convert hurt to happy remembrances. He did just that. It took a couple hours for him to get over the initial shock and when he did, he started asking questions.
To make a long story a little shorter, he is doing much better this morning and wants to do a remembrance video about our aunt Marion.
Here is the video of In The Garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH6MQGvLEr8
