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This past weekend, one of my great-aunts passed away.  I haven't seen her in at least ten years but I was quite fond of her, mostly because of good memories from my childhood.

She lived in San Antonio and had a very neat house.  We visited it when Mom had to take Jana or both Jana and Krista to summer camp.  Her yard was full of wasps, that Krista and I had the surprise of finding out once while racing down a small hill.  We started running for fun, then both started running for real because our ankles were on fire! Wasps were stinging! I think Krista was braver than I was because I remember bawling and I don't think she did.  I don't know how our aunt fixed it, but I do remember that she was quite calm about it.

My favorite memory of my great-aunt was when she took me swimming at her neighborhood pool.  I thought it was quite amazing she lived walking distance to a pool and it was huge! She got in with me and challenged me to swim to her without taking a breath.  She was just a few feet away, so I smiled and jumped in.  After a few seconds, I realized that she was backing up slowly but I was determined not to take a breath.  On and on it went until finally, when I thought I couldn't take anymore, she stopped and I reached her hand.  She pulled me up and smiled.  I looked around and saw that I had just swam the width of the pool! From then on, I could do it because I had done it before. This past summer, I did the same thing with Noah.  He was so proud of himself when he realized what he had done. 

And I thought of her.