"Losing someone is easy, but accepting it is hard."

I got a very sad phone call last night around 9:30pm.  We don't get many phone calls (pretty much it's either my mum, my best friend or my sister) and having a little one those that do call usually do so earlier in the night rather than later.  So when the phone rang last night at about 9:20 I had a feeling that it wouldn't be good news.

My 'Aunty' Dawn passed away last night. I put 'Aunty' in inverted commas as she's really no relation to me - she is my dad's cousin's, wife's mother. But, as families have a habit of doing, she was always 'Aunty' Dawn to me.  And definitely not as distant as the relation ties to myself would indicate.  There was never an event that she didn't make it to and Leah's middle name is taken from hers.  We both, Mr. Man and I love and have a lot of respect for her and although she was very old and had many visits to the hospital over the past few years she was a battler and it was a shock to hear she had passed.

I have many fond memories of Aunty Dawn.  One when I was a child heading up to her place in Whangaparoa with my Nana.  We had a lovely lunch and I remember her teaching me how to make bottle top robots using leftover bottle tops and a piece of string. I was only quite young, maybe 7, and was having a little trouble with the stringing up of the robot.  She was very patient and helped me kindly.  I'll never forget that day.

Another fond memory I have of Aunty Dawn is how much she liked dogs. Up in Whangaparoa she lived next door to my dad's cousin and his wife (who I also call Aunty and Uncle), Uncle Trev and Aunty Barbara who own a gorgeous staffy/malamute cross called Rocky.  Aunty Dawn would often have her front door left open so that Rocky could come and visit and buy treats especially for him even though she didn't own a dog herself.  She also loved our dogs.  During our engagement party our first Rotty, Vince, was about 6 months old and roamed around the party which we had at our place.  Many times during the night I couldn't find Vince and upon closer inspection found him sitting under a table by Aunty Dawn getting fed tidbits throughout the night. Just a month or so ago on a visit down here to meet Leah she commented on how beautiful and well behaved Jake was.

We didn't get to see her much, but I will miss her a lot.  She was always keen to hear about what you had been up to and asked after everyone.  She was a very intelligent lady and would always be able to talk about anything that was going on in your life with interest and knowledge.

We love you Aunty Dawn and we always will.