I'm going to start with the obvious--our family has some extremely strong women in it--if you know us, that's probably not a surprise. Today I get to tell you about one of the special ones, who I feel blessed to say, contributed to who I am today.
It just so happened, lucky enough for me, God placed me in the same family as Betty Casey Stafford. My beginning with this family began in her house & I have felt at home every visit since. Whether it was sitting around the table for holidays or scattered around the fireplace to visit with all my cousins.
She made me my first doll--Raggedy Ann--which prompted me to request a Raggedy Andy. And I got it. Mine was the first Christmas stocking she knit to start the tradition for the grandkids. She came to see me sing in college at Spring Sing. And she helped me recover my couch & chair when I got married.
I have fond memories of all of us sitting on the board in the haircut chair with our heads in the shampoo bowl and her smiling/laughing down at us. And every time any of us slept over, we knew she was going to let us have a bowl of ice cream at the end of the night before bed.
Aunt Betty never missed sending me a birthday card, and even mailed me a card when I was baptised where she wrote about how proud she was of me.
I got to work at her shops in the summer when I would come to stay.
That's probably my favorite time I spent with her. Just the two of us. We'd ALWAYS start our day with a bowl of Honeynut Cheerios, head to the shop and at lunch, we ALWAYS had a Dr. Pepper & she ALWAYS had her Bible. She'd take it out & read to herself while we ate our lunch.
It takes a strong woman with an even stronger faith to push through life when there are heart aches like loosing parents & children. Aunt Betty had that fortitude. She was able to do the hard things, like telling me what she thought God expected from me and what was right & wrong. And I don't think she would had done all of that if she didn't love me. She could say one word, "Well..." And you knew she expected you to do the right thing.
That's love. It's more than just the "I love yous".
It's amazing to me how often a heart can break & how many pieces it's composed of.
My Aunt Betty was a Casey AND a Stafford. Those are two families that have generations of loving, family oriented, strong minded women. That gave her an extra large heart, for her extra large family. I know without a doubt she was extremely proud of every single one of us that were lucky enough to be part of that circle.
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