Happy Birthday, Aunt Kathy

 This is not meant to be a sad post, I just wanted to post a few pictures of my dear Aunt Kathy who passed away this past April on Good Friday. She grew up with an older brother and younger brother (my dad) who loved her, yet also drove her nuts. She grew up playing competitive tennis and gave me my first tennis racquet when I was 5. I still remember the wooden racquet with the personalized "Kimmie" cover... white with blue letters. I thought it was the coolest thing EVER! I would visit her in Florida where she showed me around her tennis club.

The above picture is Aunt Kathy on her First Holy Communion. She grew up Catholic and we attended the same Catholic School. She is my God-mother too. She taught me to respect the Catholic religion, however she also taught me a few good swear words as well for good measure. She was always good at looking at both sides of a situation.

 Here she is more recently. She always loved my hubby and she wasn't afraid to talk about it! :) And the other photo is the only one I had with my sister and I. (Karen was preggers... sorry about the pic) She also loved my kids, always keeping up with them and wanting to get together. In my adult years, we both lived in Georgia, so we saw each other regularly. I'm so glad I moved to Atlanta for many reasons, and one was that I remained pretty close to her. She was a great confidant, always willing to lend an ear, not judgemental, and knew not to give too much advice. She just listened. She taught me how to play backgammon, to not be afraid of anyone, how to make a dollar stretch, how to laugh at a bad situation, how to hit a tennis ball, and how to appreciate life.

Here she is with her brothers. The above picture was taken in 1947 and I'm not sure when the picture below was taken. I just liked it.