Aunt Lottie served as a beacon of individuality in a family who rarely dared step beyond convention. The child of "Westward Ho," pioneers, born in 1903, Lottie Bertha Young married at age sixteen.  With an 8th grade education, when her family was in need, she trained herself as a beautician, a welder and an in-home nursing assistant.  The family considered it shameful for a woman to take a job.  Everyone knew a woman needed to stay home with the children - and starve, didn't they?  When her first husband had extramarital affairs she divorced him.  The family considered divorce a sin.  Because of this they called her a "chippy" - the word for whore in her day.  She told me, "He wanted other women.  I would have none of it."

At age 65 she injured her hip. Years later she said to me, "He (the doctor) told me I was quit. That I would never walk again.   But he didn't know me.  I don't quit.  I did it anyway."

She wore a look of quiet defiance, not one of anger.  She had learned one of the keys to success - when to speak and when to say nothing.  In her eyes lived a twinkle, one that if you were lucky, she would share with you. By the time she reached her 80s, I sometimes took her and her third husband to doctors' appointments and shopping.  During those times I learned about the twinkle.

This painting is a copy of a photograph taken when she was 80 and I was 35.  I had it taken to remind me that she was always her own person, no matter what anyone else thought of her, and no matter what happened, she gathered the inner fortitude to get through the difficulties without betraying herself.

She died in November of 2000 at age 97 while in the loving care of her granddaughter, Tammy.

Lottie, my maternal great grand aunt, gave me a great gift.  During a trying time in my life she offered to stand with me, when friends would not.  I will always carry her strength in my soul.  Even today, especially today, she helps me be strong.  She is my hero.  I miss her.