Memories ~
From Falls Church to Kilmarnock
© 2007 Abilini's Computer Services
Aunt Becky [b. 1880 d. 1982] (1965 – 1981)
Aunt Becky (Rebecca Harding Adams, actually my great-aunt) was thankfully
one-of-a-kind. Imagine a little old lady, with 10 times too much makeup and way
too much rouge. Her face, to me, always seemed to be bright white, with red
puffy cheeks, and red lipstick, and she always smelled like a perfume factory!
Her attitude in life was simple; “Men worked for a living and always looked
professional, and women always wore a dress”. If you were a man and seen by her,
not wearing a coat and tie, she would not talk to you. If you were a women and
not wearing a dress, she would simply say “What are you, a hussy?” As my
brother-in-law always says, “Aunt Becky was proof, that the good die young.”
Anyway, since her husband and sister had passed away, she had been living in the
Lancashire, ‘an assisted living complex’ in the town of Kilmarnock. When she
bought a room, at the Lancashire, it was a lifetime contract. (Everyone knew,
you weren’t expected to live more than 2 or 3 years, after moving in). She moved
in to the Lancashire in 1965, and passed away in 1982 (she always got her
money’s worth!) At least once a month, usually every other Sunday (rain or
shine), my parents and I would visit with Aunt Becky and then take her out to
lunch. Everyone knew she was special and followed the ‘old ways of living’, but
not everyone knew that even God was scared of her. Blasphemy? No, it was a fact!
The first time, for me, I was 6 years old: Imagine going to visit, a ‘little old
lady’ and to take her out to lunch and it’s pouring down rain. (Happened a lot,
back then.) My parents and I would get out of the car, open an umbrella and run
to the front door of the Lancashire. We would go in for a while, it was always
too long for me, and then we would come back to the front door of the
Lancashire, with Aunt Becky. Dad would open the umbrella to cover Aunt Becky’s
head, and she would push it away and exclaim “You are not going to hold that
thing over my head”! She would step out, into the pouring rain and suddenly,
without any sign, it would stop raining. (If it only happened once, I would say
it was “just a coincidence”). Every time is was raining, when she stepped out,
it would stop – Just turn off. However, and we learned that you had to be quick,
once she was in the car and the door was closed, it would start raining, again.
We determined, that as crusty and ‘ornery’, as she was, that not even God was
willing to let one strand of her white haired head, get wet, or she would give
Him a lot of grief, when she met Him.