Four Ways I Became an Aunt

I became an aunt four different times.

Not in four identical ways.

The first made me an aunt for the first time, which is its own kind of bewildering promotion. Suddenly there was a tiny person in the family, and I had been given a title without receiving any instructions.

The second arrived with her own way of seeing the world—creative, capable, and quietly determined. She reminded me that siblings can grow from the same family tree and still become entirely different people.

The third made me an aunt to a nephew: thoughtful, observant, precise, and much more likely than I am to know an important fact about an animal.

Then came the youngest, who entered a family already full of people ready to love him. By then, I understood a little more about being an aunt—or at least understood that nobody was going to issue me a handbook.

Each of them has made the role mean something different.

I wrote something for each of them because I did not want to squeeze four very different people into one general paragraph about how quickly children grow.

They deserve more room than that.

The Original Niece

For the one who made me an aunt first.

Read her tribute

In Her Hands

For the one carrying an old family gift into a new generation.

Read her tribute

The Careful Observer

For the nephew who notices what others rush past.

Read his tribute

The Youngest Chapter

For the youngest, who arrived last but never as an afterthought.

Read his tribute

Four children.

Four entirely different people.

Four ways I became an aunt.

I still have no official aunt handbook.

But I have four excellent chapters.