As we all know, God has a way of blessing people in ways that would totally blow the human mind out of the water...and bring people into your life that you would least expect, including long lost family members. A prime example would be the person that we just lost yesterday -- my Aunt Betty.
I mentioned this briefly, but here's a little more background on what I mentioned in my post about the newspaper ad that brought my Aunt Betty and my Mom together again.
I was in the 4th grade and my sister was just a baby. We were living on North 6th at the time in a house we affectionately called "The Butterfly House" (don't go try to go looking for it today...it's been long since torn down and now just a vacant lot). Anyway, a relative of ours in OKC had gotten the paper and something wasn't quite right. If you've ever gotten the paper delivered to your house, the front section is always the section that shows. This particular day, the classifieds were out front (maybe the carrier was led by the Lord to do it that particular way -- we may never know the reasoning but other to say it was God). It was then given to my grandparents who eventually got it to Mom and Dad after much deliberation. There was a particular ad that caught our eye. It was needing some information on siblings that this particular person was looking for and gave a number to call -- a 276 prefix which is in the community of Burneyville in southern Oklahoma, other than maybe Thackerville it's the closest you can get to the Red River without actually going into the river. Mom and Dad got to investigating and turned out, Aunt Betty had placed the ad in The Oklahoman and was looking for her other sisters who were all adopted out. As you know, my Mom and Aunt Marsha were adopted by my grandparents Ray and Goldie Tucker and one other sister was sent to an unknown location. 1981 was the first time in several years that my Aunt Betty and my Mom had seen each other since they were children. She brought her family up and visited for a weekend and a few months later we reciprocated and went down to her neck of the woods.
Putting the last 30+ years of remembering and reminiscing about someone like my Aunt Betty into words is unfathomable. From all the good things that happened (her sons graduating HS, marrying and having their kids and everything) to the sad things including yesterday, it's just hard to comprehend it. But I'm glad that God put this all together so we can remember a wonderful wife/mother/grandmother/sister/aunt like Betty (Jerri) Burton.
Rest in Peace Aunt Betty. We love you and will miss you!!!
Editor's note: Thanks to my mother for fact-checking this post. I wasn't clear on some things so she corrected me on what I got wrong. Thanks Mom!!!
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