WORDS FROM HUGGY, WITH MAX, GINNY, AND RHIANNON

My Aunt Annie. The my is always in there, because that’s how she made you feel, that she was right there, that she saw and heard you, that she was yours. Calling me or speaking to my son, Max, rather than saying, “This is Aunt Annie,” she would say, “This is your Aunt Annie,” and she meant exactly that.

I’m sure that’s why she was such an amazing model of a good friend, because her delighted attention was on the other person and how she could add to their life. She added so much to mine:

First memory for me - that beautiful bride with a million-dollar smile.

Then my sister Ginny’s and my summers at Rum Brook Farm, where we were entranced by our little cousins Sandy and Saucie, not to mention the cats Limburger and Roquefort, dogs Tippy and Jojo, and parakeet Randolph.

When we moved, again and again, she was our New England touchstone, writing loving and sometimes hilarious letters. And there she was, for weekend visits to North Conway, when Ginny and I both came back to New England for college. She was at both our weddings, and when Mom and Dad retired to Maine, visits went both ways. In an iconic photo on the Maine farm, Ginny’s daughter, Rhiannon, walks between her and Max at Mom and Dad’s 50th and Ginny and Steve’s 10th. And there are probably a dozen of us who still remember the wonderful family weekend she organized at the famous lake house.

Aunt Annie shared so much with Dad, her beloved older brother (Bubbie to her), and helped to pass on to us too that love of the ocean, the wry sense of humor, the “Now, isn’t that Something!!” interest in everything, the fascination with ancestry and the Spalding lineage.

Speaking of Spalding, our dad, who got the name as a first name, met our mom, Anneliese, through Lucie Beebe, of Hollis and Temple Mountain, in 1937. Anne was only 15, but proudly sent them their first engagement present, bought with her own money. AND 55 years later, when we brought 2-year-old Max up to North Conway, Aunt Annie made sure not only that he had good times at the river with Sandy, Justin, and Nick, but also that an elderly Tante Lucie Beebe was invited to the Inn to meet him. Full circle!

When Mom couldn’t travel anymore, Aunt Annie, still a dedicated sister-in-law, ignored her doctors and flew to Boulder to spend a wonderful week with her. Always, she asked about our kids and told us about the Back East grand- and great-grandkids.

Max says, “She put care into everything, making life into an event, and every person into a celebrity.”

Yes! Amazing food, reds and yellows and one-of-a-kind style, joy and laughter, cherished family stories and history (like how she loved May Day baskets on people’s doorknobs in Hollis; how Dad and friends put flour in the organ at Holderness School; how she met Louis Armstrong)… she made everything shine.

Max adds, “She made everyone feel so welcome and at home. I didn’t even see her that many times, but I’ve always felt like she loved me so much.”

Yes, indeed. She loved and loves us all so much. She is with her other beloveds now, and she is ever ours.

God bless you, our Aunt Annie ~