Friday, February 18, 2011

My Memories of Tina

Memories can be very painful. This morning, I finally allowed my mind to go back to memories of my recently diseased cousin Tina, or as I usually called her "Tia Tina". Her daughter Janie is just a few months younger than me and when we were growing up I called her mother, "Tia Tina". Eighteen years ago when I arrived here in Fort Worth, I arrived at her home, spend the night there and she helped me find an apartment and even helped me to return the U-Haul truck I had rented to come here. As we became close and talked to each other on a daily basis, she reminded me of the fact that she and I were really first cousins and wanted me to call her just Tina, not "Tia Tina". I spend years living on the same block and even later when I spend two years in Dallas because of a job I had, we still continued our close friendship and communication. I did a lot of sewing for her, making her clothes, such as pants, coats and even night gowns. At first she would pay me for my work, but since she had the habit of giving me things she felt I would like and that she had found in her shopping trips both to the discount stores or thrift stores, I eventually stopped charging her for any work I did for her. Even when I lived the two years in Dallas, I would visit her on some weekends or even mail her her stuff I had made for her. I did a lot of crocheting things for her, including some white doilies for her tables in the living room.
She also did a lot of crocheting and sewing for herself. She had great pride in having a beautiful home. She had good talent in home decor and her three bedroom home is a wonderful example of that. Her home always had wonderful carpets, great furniture and terrific things such as cabinets full of elegant tableware. She had a wonderful and complete tea set among many of her beautiful things. Just remembering how beautiful her home always was when I visited her, made me burst into uncontrollable tears. I haven't and I don't think I'll ever be able to visit her beautiful home after her death, because it was such a wonderful expression of the kind of great person that she was, and now her home is still there but she is gone!

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