My Dollhouse Full of Memories

My Cousin Edna Knew Me Better Than I Knew Myself

She was my father's mother's first cousin, and she was more like a grandmother on my father's side, since his mother lived far away in Oklahoma and I only had two visits with her during my life. It was Cousin Edna who was behind my Christmas surprises. I had vague ideas about what I might want. Cousin Edna knew somehow what would make my eyes sparkle and thrill my heart more than anyone did.

We visited Cousin Edna every Christmas Day after Santa Claus had been to our house. Somehow he always seemed to leave something at Cousin Edna's house as well -- something wonderful that was beyond what I ever would have thought to say I wanted.

Cousin Edna was a teacher who had never married. She had lost her own mother when a teen, and had promised her mother she would take care of her father. He lived a very long time. He was still alive for some time into my childhood. By the time he died, it was too late for Cousin Edna to marry the man she had been engaged to -- she had released him from the engagement when she committed herself to caring for her father. She lavished on me all the love she couldn't give to a child of her own and was behind many of the most special presents I ever got -- one of which was her engagement ring that she gave me before she died, wanting me to wear it.

I should at this point also introduce Auntie Lucile. She lived in the house with Cousin Edna. It was a large house with three bedrooms, a large living room and dining room, a sun room in the back of the house, and a root cellar under the house. Auntie Lucile also was a teacher -- a science teacher. Her hobby was photography. It is thanks to her that my childhood has been so well documented by the photographs she took of everything significant that happened in our family until her death. Auntie Lucile took pictures. Cousin Edna shot movies. I was their little movie star.

And so it was that on my fourth Christmas, when we visited Cousin Edna, I discovered the dollhouse under the tree. Cousin Edna must have known I needed to have something quiet to do, since I had just recovered almost miraculously from Scarlet Fever in the days when there were no antibiotics yet. The dollhouse was just the thing to keep me happy, busy and quiet at the same time. And I hadn't even known I wanted it until I saw it that Christmas Day.