MARIETTA McDANIEL, CALIFORNIA AUNT, 1959

My favorite aunt, Aunt Marietta, my uncle's sister and my dad's sister found out real quickly about me once I landed on her doorstep in the summer of 1959. She met me at the Santa Fe Station in Downtown Los Angeles, a day later than I was scheduled to arrive because of a side trip I made to Juarez, Mexico. See the story in my photostream on Flickr about NIGHT IN JUAREZ. Aunt Marietta would be over one-hundred years old if living today. After my summer in California, she ceased to favor me as a nephew and I became the wayward nephew. Such is life. She wasn't perfect either. Her son, Bill Mc Daniel and I were close cousins, so close, unfortunately, thathe passed away at my home in 1983. Bill was an alcoholic and was on the road to recovery when he died of a heart-attack. I told Marietta he was not drinking when he died, but she never forgave me for letting Bill stay with us. She never could get it through her head that he was recovering. She wrote me a nasty letter. She demanded that I send his television and BBQ grill back to her. Afterall,she had purchased it for him. Oh, it goes on and on. And it was, according to her and her daughter, Gloria, all my fault. Well, to set the record straight--it wasn't. I had bought Bill a car and helped him get a job. I had given him a room in my home. Unfortunately, he died. And once the ashes were sent to Marietta, I never heard a word from anyone in the family. Not a word. Nor did Bill's children ever contact me. Life goes on and I remember that old saying, a good deed never goes without punishment. So, to whomever might be reading this on the West Coast, Cheryl, Diane, Gloria, Rodney, June or Jack, know you know the rest of the story....