Aunt Lottie

One of my most favourite people in the world passed away this week in Port aux Basque, Newfoundland–my Aunt Lottie. We were lucky enough to visit Uncle Eric & Aunt Lottie last June for their 60th anniversary. Even after 60 years of marriage you never saw two people that were more in love with each other than those two. Aunt Lottie was an important part of my life. When I was going through my divorce she—all 5ft nothing of her—told me that she wanted to go down to Virginia and "punch Larry in the nose!" She probably would have done it too. Our trip in June was the first time that my husband met that side of my family. He fell such in love with Aunt Lottie and she with him. It was so bad that when I called home, the first thing she would say is, "how's my Bruce?" He started calling himself Aunt Lottie's Bruce. She just thought that he was something else because he did the dishes and helped around the house. Men didn't do that in her day, not that they would have been allowed to around her. This is the tribute that I wrote for her funeral:

How do you describe Lottie Durnford? I think saying that she was a small ball of a woman in constant motion pretty well sums it up. I don’t think I ever saw Lottie, in her younger years before age caught up with her, ever walk at a sedate pace. She was always bustling in and out of rooms, mainly the kitchen—Lottie was always in the kitchen.

I can’t think of Lottie without thinking of food and tea. Whenever you went to their house food would just miraculously appear on the table the minute you sat down, and I mean lots of food! I was the only child of my father’s born off the Rock, so I hadn’t grow up with traditional Newfoundland food. Aunt Lottie changed all that. She introduced me to the wonders of pork buns! The minute she heard that I had never had one she was scandalized and started baking, and baking and baking. I had pork buns every blessed morning during my first visit to Newfoundland. Oh, and you also drank a lot of tea when you were around Lottie—even if you didn’t like tea. Food and tea; that was her way of showing love.

Lottie had a great big heart. She loved her family dearly, her son Merrill, her daughter-in-law Ida, and most especially her precious granddaughter Linda. Linda was the apple of her eye. But the greatest love of her life was for her husband Eric. She loved that man dearly and gladly cared of him for 60 years of a beautiful marriage. Those of us lucky to be present at their recent 60th anniversary saw that love shining through. For 60 years she loved the same man, passionately and dearly.

I am glad that I had Lottie Durnford in my life. I wish that everyone had a Lottie Durnford in their lives because if they did, the world would be a better place. They would have known unconditional love and unconditional dedication to family and God. For Lottie showed that every day to everyone and we’re all better for it.