My Aunt Linda is one of the strongest people that I have ever known. She was married to my dear Uncle Bill, one of the greatest men I ever knew, so from that fact alone I could surmise that she is one hell of a lady. Despite all of the hell that she has been through in her own life, she has never stopped a moment to sulk or feel sorry for herself when there were others who needed her to be strong. Her selflessness is the like of which I have never seen, not even in fiction, and because of that I will always love and respect her in ways unlike anyone else.
I love Aunt Linda dearly, but there's no getting around the fact that she is a bit of an eccentric person. The best evidence of this comes from the way that she tends to pronounce words in an accent that is completely different than the way the rest of her enormous family speaks. I'll never forget this one night when we were having a get together at my house and Linda kept talking about how she needed to "arn" something. Nobody knew what the hell she was talking about, but she just kept on saying "arn." Most of the family around the table was just laughing, exclaiming "What?!" as she continued to repeat herself until my awesome and dearly missed grandpa spoke up and said "Do you mean I-RON?" The table was silent for a moment before we all burst into laughter... Maybe it's not as funny in writing as it was in person, but who cares. That was one of the best Thom family dinners that I can remember.
Linda still lives with her younger brother, my uncle with down syndrome, Russel, in a condo just about three miles away from my house. Since I've moved away to college I don't see them as much as I once did, but whenever I do Aunt Linda always greets me with a warm hug, a smile, and an offer of some freshly baked sweets that she knows I can't refuse.
Much love,
Andrew
