Days Gone By

My Aunt Monique just passed away at age 43.

My dad came by yesterday to dismantle our box spring, which didn't fit up the stairs. We chatted a bit, while I was getting ready to meet my uncle for a run in the res. My dad called me out to the garage, and he was obviously upset. He said, "My sister died." I immediately guessed Monique, and good thing, because my dad has six sisters, and that wouldn't be a fun game.

(she's second to left)

Monique was the youngest of the nine Michaud children. I remember her as a Conard High School cheerleader and camp counselor at Beachland Park. She had her own powder blue Honda Civic, a water bed, made lanyards, and had friends with '80s names like Susie and Lynn. Needless to say, I thought she was the coolest when I was in elementary school. I even had a short pleated wool skirt, which I considered my homage to Aunt Monique. (Also, my middle name is Monique, after her).

(she's the blonde on the left)

Upon graduating, Monique couldn't get out of the Connecticut fast enough, and enrolled at University of Central Florida. My parents took me and Ashley to Orlando when I was in third grade, and we crashed with Monique in her sunny Florida apartment. We all went to Disneyland and Sea World, and I wore my Thriller shirt for approximately four days straight. Monique had Alphabets cereal, which she kept on top of her fridge, and that was pretty enlightening when all I knew was Kix. Did I mention she had a sweet tooth? She had an unabashed big appetite for junk food.

During my senior year at Conard, my mom took me and Ashley to Florida again. By that time, Monique had graduated and was making big bucks, thanks to the late-90s real estate boom. She had a big home in a subdivision with a built-in pool. She was married to a nice guy and had a baby daughter, and a sharpei named Kong. She drove a Mustang convertible, had a hearty laugh, a big butt, and big blonde bangs. She was living the life, in that central Florida kind of way.

(still on the left, cheering on the Cheiftan hockey team)

I last saw Monique with her two kids at Ashley's wedding, two years ago. Monique was still fun loving, but she had packed on a lot of weight. Her glory days as a hot real estate agent were gone, and she had begun selling burial plots for a living. She was divorced, and remarried, and didn't have much to her name. Still, she met Dave and saw me pregnant, and it was nice to see her.

See died suddenly on Monday of a heart attack, after being hospitalized briefly a few months ago for an unknown heart condition, and a diabetes diagnosis. I feel bad for her kids the most. And it is strange that one of the nine Michaud kids is gone.

I prefer to think of her in her glory days, as the cute blonde cheerleader that she was. And she was the apple of Pepere's eye.