Tante Toni's 90th Birthday

Last weekend we spent three days in the Julian (Anza Borrego Desert) to help celebrate may Tante Toni's 90th B-day (Dutch for Aunt Toni).  My Aunt Toni has been a fixture in my life since I was born. She immigrated to the US a few years after after we did. Her and her brother were the only family we had growing up. We would get together as family frequently, almost every Sunday. The adults would be in our dining room playing Dutch card games, smoking cigarettes and there may have been an adult beverage or two. The kids would be outside in the backyard running amok or playing basketball in the schoolyard adjacent to our backyard. We all have very fond memories of those days. Life was simple then.

But my best memory of my Aunt is when my Mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor (benign, thank God) in 1969 and was hospitalized for a few months (surgery and recovery). Tante Toni and Tante Teeny (My uncles' sister-in-law) were the tag team who came over every day to watch us hooligans (there were 10 of us then).  Tante Toni would come in the evening to cook dinner, clean house and get us to bed and then wait until my Dad got home after work at 10:00pm. She would take care of her own family of 5 and then come over and take care of us (ages 14 - 1, 8 boys and 2 girls). I'm sure it was complete mayhem, we were all on the wild side. I can't imagine how hard this was for her; yeah maybe I can. 

One thing about my Aunt Toni, she made everything fun, even cleaning house. There was Tante Toni's way and the wrong way. 

My wife once asked Tante Toni why she didn't have more children like her sister. She said she knew her sister would need help. I am the oldest of 13 (10 boys - 3 girls)   

Tante Toni and her granddaughters

My cousin Hank's place in the Desert