Aunt S Remembers: Spoiling Her Nephew
From Aunt S, 10/15/2005
Anthony was...amazing. From the moment he came home I knew he was just really somethin'. I remember when I visited Gwen and Rian in North Carolina. I slept on the floor in the same room
as Anthony's crib and I snuck him out of bed and we played on the air bed late that night and I remember just watching him in the half-light from the kitchen and being amazed by him. When he was about 4 years old he was pretty squirrely on Sunday afternoon and thinking I could get him to take a nap, I took him for a long drive. Well, that kid jabbered and jabbered and questioned this or that the ENTIRE time we drove around until I was exhausted!
More recently, I had been wondering (since he was now a teenager) when he would stop hugging so hard when we'd say goodbye...but he still gave great, big, hard hugs. I would usually rub his head when we'd say goodbye but had stopped that this last year after he'd grown his hair. He took all the teasing about his hair all in stride though and gave it right back.
At the science fair in Ames this last spring, I decided to surprise him and stop by to see his presentation. Once I got there though, I could not find him and wandered around for quite awhile before I heard him call my name. And I remember looking down at him from the seats in the auditorium and thinking he looked so small. Then when I heard him present to the judge, being awed by how 'old' he was.
I asked him if he needed anything and he said his walkman's batteries ran out then told me he was glad to see me because he was "homesick" and he had slept in the tub at the hotel. Homesick! I couldn't possibly allow my nephew to be homesick so I went out and got batteries...and some candy, and some more candy, and a magazine, and some more candy. When I got back to him, he looked in the bag, kinda' smirked and said, "I only needed batteries..." Before I left, I asked his one more time if he needed anything, and he gave that same sideways smirk and said, "If I tell you, you'll just bring me more candy!"
Yeah, well...
He was just really somethin'...and I miss him so terribly, terribly much.