A Legacy I Would Love to Create for Myself

My earliest memories of my Aunt Lillie are when she would come into the kitchen, of whichever of the Aunt's we were at for a holiday, with her huge turkey roaster and armloads of rolls, etc. When she arrived, there was always brightness and laughter.
Lillie Langley was the youngest of my father's family. She was full of life. She was born in 1923 and died in 1963 at the untimely age of 40 years. I loved her so. Some of her sister's blamed her early death on the fact that she had 5 children. NOT. What a legacy they have been to her. She loved everyone of them, in fact she was like a mother hen, and would snuggle in any that needed loving. She had 3 girls and 2 boys. All but one is still living. Her daughter made the comment, "Momma I do believe had heart trouble. It was just not diagnosed. She was having a horrible time with the hormonal changes.Which was at the time of her death too. She was going through menopause. I'll never forget it. They had done surgery on her and she just went right into it. I found out later that the doctor she was going to, had given her Librium of all drugs for the emotional ups and downs. Librium itself can cause heart attacks and other things. But I have to look at it this way. We felt very cheated when she died. I was 15 and you just have no idea as to what that did to all of us. I have come to believe in my heart though that We all have a time to be born and a time to die. and that for what ever reason, God took her home early in life. It was her time. and nothing was going to stop that from happening." We all can take a lesson in life from this. We miss someone, we wish we had them back, but realize it was just their time to return to Heavenly Father and find comfort in that knowledge.
My favorite memory was spending two weeks with her in the summer of my 12th year. My cousins taught me to swim in a crayfish pond and she taught me to love cooking. Every morning she had a wonderful smelling breakfast ready for us (a delicacy of biscuits and gravy, I still can not resist...it is a comfort food) . The biscuits were homemade, dipped in bacon grease, and baked. Not really healthy eating by today's standards, but mmm mmm good tasting. You could float into the kitchen on the smell. Her daughter told me:"This made me feel so good Frances, as I could actually smell those biscuits and gravy and could see her again. My momma had the habit of pouring bacon grease on her eggs before she ate them. She loved that. She always made homemade biscuits and would turn them in oil or bacon grease before baking them."

She had thick dark brown hair, laughing eyes, and friendly, loving lips that had the hint of smile always at the edges of her mouth. She was always full of smiles and had a wonderful sense of humor. I hoped to be like her, she never held grudges or hurt others feelings.
If I am successful in following her example, I hope that my legacy will be of kindness, hope, love, and laughter for my family too.