Martha Ann McKinnon Marshall taught me unconditional love as a small child. The eldest of my mom's eight sisters (mom was number five), Aunt Martha was a fixture in my life from my earliest journeys to the South. I grew up in Michigan, my mother grew up in south Florida; nearly all of her family stayed there. We managed a trip about every other year in my childhood, and always it was Martha who greeted us with the hugs and the excess love we had missed being in the north. She became my pen pal at age seven; well into my twenties we still exchanged letters via the U.S. Mail.
It was to her home I brought my first husband, and in her home I sought refuge after his death. My home is decorated like hers, with an emphasis on family and the happiest things in life: antiques, books and art. Martha is a talented artist; the only artistic talent I've ever had was being able to combine colors despite her many attempts to teach me to draw or paint. To this day, she shares a thirst for knowledge that sees her still working in a library in her mid seventies. While we diverge politically, it shows the depth of unconditional love: one does not have to agree in order to love and accept the other.
Love. It becomes routine to express "I love you" but when the months go by and distance separates us from family, how is that love so easily sustained? In marriage there's a need for reassurance and action, yet with some family the memories of past love shown sustains that love indefinitely. With so many family members so far away, I never cease to be amazed by the instant unconditional love showered on me during visits.
Martha is the matriarch of such love; hearing her Boston/Southern accent I was immediately warmed to my very core. Her words wrapped around me in a long distance hug; for a minute I was a child again, basking in the attention of a much loved aunt.
I adore being an aunt to Alex, Abby, Edward & Lizzy. I can only hope that they always feel from me the love I feel from my Aunt Martha.
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