IN MEMORY OF MY 103-YEAR-OLD AUNT HELEN

By OLIVENE GODFREY

My 103-year-old Aunt Helen Rollins went to Heaven last week.
I believe she is having a joyous reunion with her loved ones who went before her. She was a truly good person and I believe
God has a special place in Heaven for her.

Aunt Helen's kindness and help touched many people and our family was blessed to have her. My late mother, Aunt Helen's sister, often said she didn't know how she would have coped with twin babies without Aunt Helen's help. When the twins, Joan and Jeanette, were about four, they loved to talk to Aunt Helen on the phone. Most days Jeanette would belt out her rendition of San Antonia Rose to Aunt Helen's delight. Jeanette, and our kid sister, Dianne, have their own warm memories of Aunt Helen and my late sister,Joan, also loved her very much.

When I was a young adult, I took a job in Chattanooga and stayed with Aunt Helen and her first husband a couple of months until I found a place to live. At that time, they lived in a small apartment with coal grates for their only source of heat. It was frigid weather and at night, Aunt Helen would heat bricks
in the coals in the grate and wrapped them in some kind of fabric and tuck them in at the foot of the beds to keep our feet warm.
It has been 60 years since that period in my life but I vividly remember the era. Aunt Helen also "scolded" me for the only time in my life during that period. My late husband, Ralph, and I were dating and my curfew at home had been 11 P.M. and Aunt Helen gave me the same curfew. One night, Ralph and I were a little late and Aunt Helen was waiting up for me. She gently scolded me and she never mentioned it again but I made certain after that to be home on time.

Later, when Ralph and I were married, we lived on the beach at Treasure Island, Florida. Aunt Helen was a widow then and she wanted to spend a vacation with us and we were delighted to have her. We lived in a small duplex and only had one bedroom but we had a screened in porch with a cot and a little furniture and when she arrived, she quickly settled in on the porch.
She would rise early and fix a little breakfast and then put on her bathing suit and take her towel and bag and head for the white, sandy beach on the Gulf of Mexico. She soon met a nice widower at the beach and they would chat every day.
We ate lunch at different restaurants every day and some afternoons we would shop or just rest at home before supper.
On weekends, Ralph and I took her sight seeing. Several times a week, Ralph would drive us to the waterfront where the fishing boats came in and we would buy fresh fish. Aunt Helen loved to eat fish more than anyone I ever knew and she would save a portion of her dinner fish to eat at breakfast in the mornings.

And, at her 100th birthday party, I asked her if she remembered those three weeks and she smiled and said she did.

During the past few months, Aunt Helen's daughter, Ernestine,
would read my columns to her and she enjoyed them and sometimes she would smile and comment on one. Ernestine said Aunt Helen's mind seemed alert until nearly the end of her long life.
Aunt Helen was blessed with a warm, loving family and I know they will miss her very much now.

So long for now, Aunt Helen. I hope to see you again one day and I hope they have fish in Heaven for you.