Nurses, as I've often seen proclaimed on T-shirts, book bags, and coffee mugs, are angels without wings. Up until a year ago, I had my own angel. She wasn't a nurse, but my aunt. My mother's closest sister, and the person I was named after, died. She was my second mother, my ally when I needed one, and loved by everyone. My mother, the youngest, of the four sisters, often said, "Joyce was the prettiest of the four girls". Aunt Joyce's beauty was on the inside as well.
My aunt ran a daycare for years. She was an angel to all the children she cared for, and I suspect, their parents as well. Children loved "Miss Joyce". When I was little, I spent summers in South Carolina with her, my uncle, and my cousin. On nights when I was homesick, Aunt Joyce would pull me into her lap and rock me until I felt better. When my mother would tell her I was getting too big for that, my aunt would very nicely tell her I wasn't. Nobody could make a child feel better like she could.
Aunt Joyce had 1 child. Her daughter, Veree, was named after my mom. Veree was my aunt's angel when she became sick. Veree, was selfless in caring for her mother. She had help, and even had hospice care the last year, but Veree's devotion and care for her mother was something I seldom see. Veree is more of a sister to me than a cousin. Even though, as we've gotten older, we have gone long periods of time more involved in our own lives than each other's. We both know that we'll always be there for each other. Veree's daughter, Brooke, was another angel that helped take care of my aunt. She was not only there for my aunt, she was there for my cousin as well.
A year ago, June 11, 2011, my angel received her wings. She isn't with with us anymore, but what she left behind will live on. The kindness she gave, will reach out and touch other lives.I have seen her kindness in my cousin, and in my cousin's daughter. All the little girls and boys who sat in her lap as she rocked away whatever made them sad, have, I feel sure, rocked their own children and thought fondly of "Miss Joyce". She has left an angel legacy.
