Autumn's Here....

I guess it has been a while since I posted. I've had some very busy days - been canning apricots, apples, and peaches in my spare time. I have a lot of tomatoes waiting for their turn and may try to undertake that task today and tomorrow. We've had a fun Super Saturday at Relief Society, and spent a delightful day with Noelle. Life is good.

I have been thinking about cute Aunt Rella. Rella LeFevre is my mother's only living sister, 93 years old, living in Tabiona, Utah. She was married to my father's cousin, Walter, who was the son of Jesse Holyoak LeFevre and Nora McClellan. Our family line is along the Francis Banks line and the Uncle Walter was from the Hannah Holyoak line, so they are distant cousins - dad and Uncle Walter had grandfathers in common. Aunt Rella always was fun to be around. She has a very distincive voice, smiles a lot, and will occasionally blurt out some amazing explatives. She is very much like Grandpa Beckstead in looks and mannerisms. As I recall, she and mom weren't especially close, although that may have been because of the geographic distance between them. She lives in the first little white farmhouse you see as you enter Tabiona from the highway, or about the last house if you're coming over Wolf Creek Pass (the scenic route). She's almost blind now and walks with a cane made from a green broom handle. Up until the last couple years she mowed her own lawn, which is about an acre, with a little tractor mower. She plays the piano and organ, but now she can only play those tunes she knows by memory. I called Aunt Rella one day a couple weeks ago and asked if I could come visit her, and she welcomed me with open arms. I set out on the scenic route and stopped along the way to pick up some flowers for her and a treat for me - bonus - if I bought 2 bags of M&Ms I could get a beautiful pink bouquet of flowers free! There you go! So me and my Pepsi and M&Ms went on over the hill through the small towns and over the beautiful autumn saturated hills. We had a wonderful visit and caught up on all the family news. She hardly let me get a word in edge-wise. I had a list of questions for her, but we didn't get very far - guess I'll have to try that on another visit. I'm going to try to appreciate her more and check in with her more because she's my last link to my momma. Glad she's still around. This is a picture of a couple of her granny squares she made because she knew she was losing her sight and wanted to use up her yarn and do what she loved while she could.
Gotta love her!