Tante Christa

Tante is German for Aunt, but this lady was not related to me. I grew up in the Deep South where it was common back in the day to call someone aunt or uncle as a mark of respect and fondness.

Tante Christa was a very close friend of the family for a lot of years. She was German and her primary relationship to my family was through my German mother, thus the German language version of a Southern honorific.

When she was in her sixties, she spent two years being paid to do the cooking and cleaning for her best friend who was very ill and couldn't do the housework and cooking any longer. After two years of being largely bedridden, this other lady finally died.

The family respected and trusted Tante Christa so much that the grown children ASKED her to please spend the night at the house the night before the funeral. They were concerned that their aggrieved father might get rip roaring drunk and not make it to the funeral if he was left alone that night.

Something like a month or six weeks after the funeral, their dad and Tante Christa were at the mall and he walked her into a jewelry store and said "Pick out a ring. I'd like to marry you." and they PROMPTLY got married.

They were both past sixty and knew each other well and didn't know how much longer either of them might live. He saw no reason to wait.

The grown children had a fit about him remarrying so quickly after the funeral and suddenly had all kinds of criticisms of Tante Christa that no one ever had before he married her.

I already felt my marriage was a private matter and no one's business, but that incident made me double down big time on my opinion that you can butt the hell out and I don't want to hear your shit, thanks.