I hope Heaven is like a cruise....

My Aunt Carole (left) and my Aunt Grace, last summer

I am making an unexpected trip home today....my Aunt Carole slipped out of our everyday lives yesterday...she passed away. We do not really know a lot of details, it went from her not feeling well to us losing her in just a couple hours.

Carole is my Dad's baby sister, so...understandably...everyone is taking this pretty hard....to be snatched up so fast, it is still all so unbelievable.

My brother Mike called me, and started the conversation with "Now, don't freak out..." and told me Carole was on her way to the hospital...that call was followed a little over an hour later with my dad calling and saying she had passed away. My first words to my dad were that I was coming up...of course he says that I do not need to. I felt torn...so I left it up to Mike and he told me to come. My dad may not need me there, but this daddy's girl needs him.

I adored my Aunt Carole when I was younger, she was a beautician....and she always gave me a new haircut when we came up on vacation. She feathered my hair for the first time as a teen, she gave me the pixie cut my mom loved when I was a kid. She had just retired last year, she had worked for JcPenney since I was very young. She and my Aunt Grace have gone on some fun adventures the last couple years...cruises to Alaska and around the Hawaiian Islands, their annual trip to Texas. I am eager to make sure my cousins are ok, Lenny and Bobby, her two sons. Lenny reached out to me at a family get together just after my mom passed away and I want to return the favor.

My dad has always called me Carole before he calls me Jeanine...just a funny slip of the tongue..it used to make me a little annoyed, but I think it is a testament to how much he loves his sisters...and now when he calls me Carole, I will remember her smile...because I bet he called her Jeanine.