Happy New Year from Radical Betty
I got back from my 0-skunk-30 this morning and was messing around in my kitchen when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out thinking it was a text message from my puzzle partner. Instead I was thunderstruck to find new year wishes from my aunt Radical Betty who died in 2009. Here she is and this is the picture associated with the text.
Of course the message was NOT from Betty. But her phone lives on, used by her son (my cousin), the Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie, who also lives in her house, two doors down from the moomincabin. I figgered out who sent the text right away but I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me ALL DAY to process why Betty’s name and picture were there. OF COURSE, it is because when she was alive, I labeled her phone number with her name and a picture that I TOOK(!) in my phone contacts!!! Duh, I am an IT pro? 🐽🐽🐽 I don’t hear from my cousin frequently but not because we don’t love each other. He’s been one of my favorite people on earth since he was six and I was three and we had a fight in the back of our granddaddy’s car over who got to hold a package of smoked fish. I REMEMBER it!
Here’s another pic of RB! It was her birthday and I couldn’t decide whether to post her in bat glasses or the Harry Potter glasses that washed up on the beach that summer. Bat glasses won, in part because I remember a cute emergent talker (“Little Katie”) pronouncing her name “Batty” a billion years ago, also because bat was one aspect of her persona.
Finally, here’s Radical Betty and her son the Grinch kayaking up at the Pictured Rocks a billion years ago.
So. Note to self: Change the contact name in yer phone to “Grinch” and change the picture!
Love y’all,
Yer fav-o-rite klutz, KW
December 30th, 2021 at 7:53 pm
That would certainly give me a start and then the twinges of nostalgia. RB was an extremely elegant woman, the kind I wanted to be. Oh, well!
December 30th, 2021 at 9:23 pm
My father referred to RB as, “your mother’s crazy sister.” But you know they got along as they traveled the world together. RB was a force, and one I occasionally try to emulate. Only for short periods at a time because it takes a lot of energy. And I am forever grateful for RB taking my son under her wing for a summer. I would almost like to hope RB was communicating from wherever she is.
December 31st, 2021 at 8:54 am
Mark used the first photo of Betty in a cabin blog. The caption was “what do you mean? This IS my swimsuit!” The weather was not really swim-friendly, unless you’re a die-hard.
I would leave the photo in your contacts, or change it to the Pictured Rocks picture, so you still see her pop up occasionally.