POOR AUNT EVIL
Later called Eva, by all but the oldest family members,
Daddy’s oldest sister (when I was young) was Aunt Evil. Aunt Evil was dealt a
hard hand as the oldest of the family. Grandpa Cardwell was sick with
Brights disease several years before his death in 1934. During the years of his
illness Aunt Lizzie, the second oldest, married Luther Neely. Shortly after his death Daddy married
Mommie.
In our small
community two families topped the social class – if the term applies- the
Neelys and the Cardwells. Aunt Lizzie, a
Cardwell, married Uncle Luther, a Neely. Daddy, a Cardwell married Rutha, a Neely. To be repeated several years later when Uncle
Viven, a Cardwell, married Aunt Norma, a Neely. Needless to say I have raft of double first cousins. It is (and maybe I will address later that special relationship).
Aunt Evil, the eldest, never married. Unusual in that time and place. Various
versions of her early life are vague and contradictory. She had boyfriends; she was pretty; she wanted the
normal life. But for reasons I have never been able to learn she never got a
proposal.
Whether her siblings felt lucky or just took her for granted
cannot now be known.
But here begins my account of Aunt Evil.
Often we visited Grandma Cardwell. One visit hops up in my memory often. I was just fifteen, Ivy was thirteen.
Ivy and I were put to bed on the newly stuffed straw mattress in the
back room where the pump organ was. Before giggling time was over Aunt Evil
came in. “You gals all right?”
“Good”
“Nothing wrong?”
“No”
“You gals been sick yet?”
Ivy and I knew exactly what Aunt Eva was asking. She needed
to know if we had had out first menstrual periods. But we refused to cater to the nosy needs of
our not so smart Aunt. Ivy responded first, “I ain’t been sick for I don’t know how
long.”
“Well.” She said. When she left us we giggled, never wondering how we might have made her feel.
