I am Maddy’s great Aunt. His Mom Jordana and her sisters are my nieces. When they and my children were growing up, they always used titles like Aunt and Uncle.
Now remember , this is a Maddy story, so no disrespect to any others.
When my nieces married, and had children, I noticed a strange thing. The husbands and sons addressed me as Micki. The daughters followed their Mothers and called me Aunt Micki. Strange occurrence, but, you know, males and females.
Maddy followed the men.
Maddy and I met face to face about 6 or 7 times, but I knew so much about him from the closeness of our families and the love we all shared, even though we lived near the other ocean.
During one of our face to face visits, I asked Maddy if he would address me as Aunt Micki.
”Of course”, he said. And that was that.
Now this is not an earth shattering event, but
this kindness has remained with me. Maddy got it. He respected me and loved me, even though I was not one of the dozens and dozens and dozens of people who impacted his life every day.
The loss of this remarkable man has overwhelmed so many with grief, that I wonder how the world is continuing on its erratic path.
My love to Jorge and Olli and Shayna and Hanna and Pavel and Alden.
Especially to Maddy.
Aunt Micki