MY PRINCESS

Each of us can think back and remember the unusual events and special people who inspired us to travel the various roads through life that we chose; for each detour we took, each branch of the road we selected was precipitated by something or someone special.

Not everyone can remember the one event or special person responsible for initially preparing us to take that difficult and dangerous journey.

As for me, I will always and forever remember who it was - quite well. This person was my Guardian Angel, my Special Princess, my Fairy godmother, my Protector, and in a sense - my ultimate salvation.
This person was none other than my Aunt Norma Jean.

During our early years, my sister and I were not blessed with a loving and caring family environment. For the most part we were literally scattered to the wayward winds or dropped off on some convenient door step, left to fend for ourselves, to garner what small crumbs of love we could uncover or to invariably find solace in each others child like embrace.

We were the products of a broken home, of a mother who was nothing more than a child herself and a father raised in ignorance and steeped in self-approbation. That our own mother loved us there could be no doubt, otherwise she would not have accepted the difficult choices that life handed to her in an effort to see us survive.

But there was one person who went far beyond love, who transcended the ordinary in an extraordinary way. This was our beloved Norma Jean.

Our Aunt Jean, my Guardian Angel, suddenly appeared in my life when I was around nine years old. That she had been there before; been there always, is a fact that only my fading memory can recall.

Imagine if you can two young children living in absolute poverty, with a grandmother who was just short of being a genuine ogre (especially for my sister), with no hope for the future, no chance for true happiness, surviving only through a deep and abiding love for each other.

Imagine if you will two young waifs; one a portrait of Raggedy Ann with golden locks, built like a bean pole or a chicken on a hunger strike, the other a skinny, burr-headed, knock-kneed mouse whose ears were his most redeeming features.

Suddenly one day, this absolutely beautiful Princess shows up at our door, looking like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty combined, with a startling smile and mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Behold, she is there to take us away to the Land Beyond-Beyond, to the mythical Never-Never Land that our young creative and love-starved minds already lived in.

This is my first, fondest, and most precious memory of my Aunt Norma Jean. But, it neither begins nor ends there; for you see - she is also the one who truly placed me on that grinding road of life to travel.
Her devotion and guidance, her caring and concern, her genuine love - given freely and lavishly throughout the years that followed - created this person I know of as "myself."

It was through her tender love and gentle guidance that I came to notice things in life other than total despair. My empty cupboard was suddenly overflowing with endless possibilities, with marvelous adventures, with hope, with faith, with an eagerness and zest to learn, and a burning desire to seek life at its fullest.

But most of all my Princess taught me that I did not have to march to the same drum that others did, that I could choose which path in life to take, and that I alone would have to account to God for everything I did in life or failed to do.

For you see, my Princess noticed something in me that was different from others, that her little mouse dreamed a different dream, saw a different vision, and what she saw didn't just make all the difference in my life, her vision made my life.

Our Aunt Norma Jean, my Guardian Angel, did not give birth to my sister and me - but she did give us life.
Wherever the path God chooses for her to travel may take her, I know she will always carry with her the same gift she gave to me when she set me upon my wandering path, that is a precious piece of my heart and marvelous enduring memories which will abide forever.

In and of themselves, mere words can never express the genuine love I have for my Aunt Jean. Yes, she has gone to that land beyond-beyond, to a place both far and near, but in the twilight of my own years, I have the consolation of knowing that when my own memory dims and my mind fades, I have my own princess daughter Natalie "Jean" to remind me of my waiting Princess.

For she has; through the grace of God, inherited part of the beauty, kindness, grace, and indomitable spirit that my Princess Norma Jean possesses in such rich and lavish abundance.

Notice I wrote, “she possesses.” In the belief of The People, combined with my own Christian beliefs, life continues, it does not fade or die. Her time to move on has passed, but – and I am sure she agrees – the best is yet to come!