Betty Floyd, GPC Student
Aunt Lillie was a legend that was talked
about at family gatherings. Because she did not work to support her self, or
have children of her own, she was passed around from one family member to
another. Just the mentioned of Aunt
Lillie’s name gave us kids nightmares. Aunt Lillie was an old, cruel, and
prejudiced spinster, who was the family’s terror.
I remember the time for her to live
with our grandparents. The day of Aunt Lillie arrival is branded in my memory
forever. For years, my mother had told us stories of her childhood of how mean
and prejudiced Aunt Lillie was to her. Aunt Lillie took an instant dislike to
my mother at birth, and she was jealous of any attention her brother, my
grandfather, gave to his wife or kids.
At every chance, Aunt Lillie got out of my grandmother’s eyesight, and
she would pinch and hit my mother and brothers. The car stopped and Aunt Lillie
bounced out of the care as I stood in the doorway, trembling from fear, I was
expecting to see a witch with a long hook nose. Aunt Lillie did not disappoint
me, she immediately screamed, “get out of my way” child. Immediately she ruled
my grandparents’ home as if it was her own.
She told use how to act, what and when to eat, and what time were to
eat. Some days Aunt Lillie would not give us any food at all. She was also
violent. I remember her swinging a broom at the back of her head as I ran out
of the kitchen. I still pause and look for Aunt Lillie before I enter my own
kitchen.
I can still see Aunt Lillie standing
in my grandparents’ kitchen, with high beam ceilings. The walls were lined with
pots and pans. She always had a broom in one hand as she stirred the posts
cooking on the black wood stove. Aunt Lillie was wearing an old nineteenth-century
dress with about three petticoats underneath. Her head was covered with a black
scarf. She wore an apron over her dress, and she wore black high top shoes with
torn, brown, thick stockings. The smell of blackberry clobber bring back the
image of this old, mean, bloated face lady who made my summer vacation at
grandma’s a nightmare and it sent chills of terror down my spine.
We soon found that Aunt Lillie could
not read. She had never gone to school because the girls in her family were
only allowed to stay home and take care of the men in the family. She was so hateful to everyone that she did
not want anyone to know that she was illiterate. She received a letter from her
sister and holding it upside down we laughed at her. She would only let my
grandfather read her letters to her. She also could not pronounce her words
properly. She would say words “duh” for “the”. She was too proud to accept any
help from us, and she would hit us with her broom if we offered her any help.
The final show down came when Aunt Lillie sent all of the darker-skinned kids
out of the kitchen and refused to give us any breakfast one morning. My
grandmother heard her say that we were things instead of people, and we were
not welcome in her brother’s home. That was the day my grandmother told Aunt
Lillie she had to leave her home. Aunt Lillie had to go stay with another
relative because she was so mean and prejudice against most of the grand kids.
Aunt Lillie continued the same evil
behavior until her death. She never changed her feeling toward us as we grew up
in her presence. We continue to call her the witch lady.