When I was a growing up I had two spinster aunts who lived together. They always had an open door, and I remember many family gatherings filling their home on Aldershot. Quirky, yet feisty, they inspired me at a young age to want to be as cool as they were if I ever got to be an aunt!

Today I had the honour of being at the bedside of my Tante Annie. Full of cancer, it was difficult to watch her fight for each breath. In those moments of observing life translate into eternity, I saw the legacy of her years on this planet in the lives of her nieces and nephews. Having had no children of her own, she was surrounded by the thoughts, prayers and presence of those who saw her as a second mother. I am grateful she is no longer in pain...but I am more grateful for the legacy she left behind. May we endeavour to love with open doors and open hearts...


From when I was a little girl
with scraped up knees and baby curl
I recall with love, fond memory,
A song a spinster sang to me...

This song would filter, fiercely sweet
and gather children round her feet.
And with an open heart and home
she sung as if they were her own...
It spun a smile, and calmed a fear
It held a hand, it dried a tear.
Note for note, it's tune would rest
In sacrifice for life's request,
as strength with determined spirit met;
Yet tenderly, it oft' had wept.

This song has threaded through the years
From generation to generation's ear,
And when her voice would crack with time,
Still she remembered every line,
and tho with laboured breath, was bound,
it gathered all the children 'round.
With longing heart and tired strands,
her legacy sat to hold her hand,
and with a breath, so frailly hung,
the spinster's final song was sung.