My Single Mom Life

I was going to post a book review and giveaway for 5 lucky readers to get 1 copy of the book each, but not tonight.

My Aunt Lorraine has passed away after a very long battle with cancer, so I just don't feel like I should post a fun giveaway tonight.
Aunt Lorraine is my Mom's sister, and my Mom is very upset this evening, which is perfectly ok for her to be sad and upset, grieving for the loss of her sister.

I remember Aunt Lorraine as being a really wonderful woman, a fun aunt who used to let us stay up late and watch scary movies while we laid in sleeping bags on the living room floor.
She was just a happy and fun person from what I recall of my memories and trips to Pennsylvania for family vacations.

She always found the most unusual but beautiful dolls to give to us girls when we were little.
I remember that she gave my sister Jo and I these dolls that said the night time prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep."

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
Should I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I'm pretty sure that it was my Aunt Lorraine who also got me the Mattel Sunshine Family dolls and their Surrey Cycle too.
I remember at some point later on, someone got me the craft/pottery wheel for the Sunshine Family, which is discussed here as other girls remember these dolls too.
The Sunshine Family lived sort of the "hippie" lifestyle.
They wore sandals, rode a bike, made their own clothes and threw their own pottery, farmed organic produce.
You could say these dolls were living in the times, they were made in the early 1970's when people were living in communes and growing their own food, making their own clothes, and making crafts and pottery too.
I loved those dolls, I remember sitting there using the tiny little pottery wheel and making little bowls and pots and pans for them to use to cook with.
Aunt Lorraine just had this gift for finding me the most beautiful, unique, and fun to play with dolls.

I'm sad that she's gone, I'm sad to know that my Mom is sad and hurting, but at the same time, I'm relieved that Aunt Lorraine is no longer in any pain from the cancer that she had.
I'm happy to know that she had gone to Texas to be with her daughter, Toni, in the end, that she was with her grandsons and family.
I have very good memories of her and that is what is making it a little bit easier to deal with the news of her passing.