MY AUNT DORIS

  Hello Doris, I went to a funeral last week for my step-mom and after hearing the eulogy delivered by my brother, I got to thinking about my Aunt Doris. They were not sure about the date she was born, so I wondered if by chance that the Dr. and Pa Jones were talking on the front porch after she was born with a jug of home brew and got the date wrong. She always said her birthday was on the 15th but the birth certificate states the 16th. Who knows. I just know that she came to live with us when I was 5 years old to attend Rome High School and play basketball. There were more opportunities in the city than at a country school. I have a picture of me with my mom on the day of my party for 6 years of age and somewhere there is a picture of Doris holding my birthday cake that mom had made. She and my mom were always doing some kind of baking and home decorating. And they were good at it. Doris could make the best chocolate pies in the world. With meringue on top, not whipped cream. Homemade pie crusts, nothing from the freezer. They were always making flower arrangements. How I wished that I could do something like that in my home. And they made rag rugs for the floors. Beautiful rugs of different colors. They said that they learned it from my grandmother.

     Doris use to date a guy named Curt Bozeman and when they would sit on the front porch, I would look out the window to watch them smooch. I was a stinker when I was young. Aunt Sybil has a son named Michael and his middle name comes from Curt. Curtis, and I liked the name as well so my youngest has the same middle name.
     After Doris graduated from high school, she married Dudley Sheppard in my living room. I was suppose to be in the wedding but I broke my arm and had to stay on the sidelines. That was the third break for me. The house was decorated so beautiful with flowers from Aunt Josie's florist. Candles were lit and music was playing and she walked down the long hall thru the swinging glass doors to the far side of our living room where Dudley and the minister were waiting. I don't know where they went on their honeymoon but they moved in an apartment behind us and I visited her often. Dudley was in the navy so she spent some time alone at night. Some times Larry stayed but mostly it was me. Her first son arrived on September 10, 1952 on my brother, Larry's birthday. Later they moved to Garden Lakes subdivision and Uncle Dudley went to work for GE. She had 2 more children named Roger and Mark. Later they moved in Glenwood apartments. When Dudley retired, he found out he was a diabetic. This caused the lose of his leg just before he died. But he was an avid Boy Scout throughout his life and attained a high rank. Now my Aunt Doris lives with her son, Mark in an apartment on Martha Berry Blvd.