"Cuddles Bit Me" la la la

I was outside with the dogs last night, and we lingered for a while, because it was absolutely beautiful out. When we came back in, I had a message on my machine, and it was from my Aunt - my father's sister. I've probably mentioned that my Dad died when I was two, but I may not have mentioned that I haven't really known any of his family since, because of a falling out between my Mom and my Dad's Mother. Anyway, I couldn't remember the last time I saw or spoke to this woman, so it was strange.

We had a nice conversation. She had called because her mother died last winter, and in her will she had left all of what she had (which wasn't much, I'm sure, since our family has never been what you'd call well off) to her ex-son-in-law (my Aunt's ex-husband). But there was a life insurance policy that was apparently left from when my grandfather died, which wasn't named in the will - all of her descendents would have been owed a portion of it. It apparently isn't for much money, though, and once it was divided among my Aunt, my four siblings and myself, it would have amounted to a few hundred bucks or so for each of us. The ex-son-in-law had papers sent out to everyone asking them to sign off their share so that it could go to him for his expenses in taking care of her estate.

Anyway, everyone signed off except for her, because she's thinking of fighting for her share, and me, because I'm a lame-o and I forgot to send the papers back. Since we didn't sign off, we were sent a summons to come to a court date next week if we wanted to contest it. She called me to see if I was going to fight it. Of course I told her no - I didn't even know the woman, I'm not going to fight to get any of her money. Once that talk was over, we had a nice little conversation, and just before she hung up, she told me that the last time she saw my father before he died, he had come to the house where she was living with her parents, and he had me with him. I was two years and 10 months old, and she said I was singing a song about Cuddles biting me. (Cuddles was my Mom's Pekingnese dog at the time.) So just like that, she gave me a little snippet of my toddlerhood that I would otherwise have never known about, and she let me know that sometimes I got to go places with my Dad all by myself - the other kids must have been in school. It was very cool. I just wish I could hear what my almost three year old self sounded like, and what kind of song I made up.