A Thanksgiving to Be Remembered.

This week I'm participating in Mama Kat's Writer's workshop. Today's topic "A Thanksgiving to Be Remembered" was inspired by Crafting with Rhinos.

I met my husband on September 12, 1993.  We dated, quite seriously, from the moment we laid eyes on each other and married seven intense months later.  The first holiday we ever spent together was Thanksgiving 1993.

I was asked to his parents' house to spend Thanksgiving with them, his brother, his paternal grandmother and his father's sister, Aunt Bev.  Aunt Bev was quite the character.  She was a chain-smoking, whiskey-swilling, swearing Yankee girl. There was no gray area with Bevvy.  And I liked her instantly.

My first memory of this very memorable character was entering the kitchen that Thanksgiving to the sight of her removing the rather large turkey from the oven.  As she hoisted the turkey with a large meat fork speared on each side, the 25 pound turkey was steaming and dripping everywhere. Suddenly, she called out to my [future] mother-in-law with a very loud "MAAARRRR-CIA," [punctuated with her Yankee accent], "What cha want me to do with this turkey?" I glanced up to notice a cigarette, pursed and dangling from her lips with the longest ash you have ever seen defying gravity and dancing over our dinner.

I was instantly reminded of the scene in Sixteen Candles where Grandma Helen's cigarette ash was dangling perilously over the breakfast box of powdered doughnuts.

Aunt Bev at Thanksgiving was my introduction to the family, and what an introduction it was.  We lost Aunt Bev in 2004 to breast cancer, but I will always think of her that one time of the year when I remove a large turkey from the oven.