Aunt Geelah and Her Vanity Case

When Aunt Geelah’s vanity case was found No one else but my daughter was anywhere around I screamed with joy at this beautiful sight The feelings I had were of instant delight. I had buried Aunt Geelah in the back of my mind She had been witty and fun, and sweet and kind. But she went a different path than many others. She was shunned by grandma and my brothers. In New York I heard that she was making a life As an artist, a painter, with a woman, a wife. It’s unnatural the family had said. In most of their eyes she was simply dead. I was ten when she left, and felt so sad. She had been the happiest person I’d ever had. The python squeeze she gave me I can feel today. A forever good-bye, but she did not dare say. She did not come to visit or call or write. It is as if her light was put out that light. A few days after she left I found her vanity case. She had left me a note and told me to chase…. My dreams, living my hopes and being myself. It felt like I had received a gift from a Christmas elf. I dragged it in and showed it off that day. Some unthinking relative grabbed it and hid it away. But here it is, under my grandpa’s side of the bed. I open it wide, filled with a bit of dread. Afraid it will not have the note that she left me. But it does, and it fills my heart with renewed glee.