Emo!!!!

To lighten up the blog I would like to introduce you to my Aunt Emma.

She is a almost 60 year old woman who was born with congenital hypothyroidism (once called Cretinism) which was left untreated for a while growing up in Mexico. What this means to the rest of the world is that she is the height of a nine year old and has the mentality and personality of a seven year old. In 2005, right before starting PA school, we decided to take her on a trip to Hawaii. She had always wanted to go somewhere tropical and Hawaii was a pretty close plane ride. So in June of 2005, my niece Lilypons, my nephew Patrick (Packetman), Emma and I embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. Emma had worked at Pizza Hut for something like 15 years and she also accrued money via disability, so she paid for the entire trip. We rented a nice cabana a hop, skip and a jump away from the beach complete with a kitchen and little living area. This was going to be the ultimate vacation right before starting the rigorous training of PA school. I had taken care of Emma before without a glitch. Unfortunately, this time was different. The reason we decided to take Emma at this point in her life was because she was seriously physically ill. She had this hand tremor and total loss of balance to the point where she would use the wall to walk down a straight hall and she was losing weight. Her stupid doctor spent two years blaming her "Parkinson" like symptoms on her medications and never once did he scan her head to see if something else was going on. I knew we were in for a challenge when we arrived to the airport and she wanted to be transported in a wheelchair. In all my years of knowing my generously round, super happy aunt, never once did she have the inability to walk. We finally arrived in Hawaii and they gave us a second floor condo, which was again, a challenge, but no big deal. I asked the kids and Emma what they really wanted to do during our time in Maui. Emma wanted to go to a luau and eat 'camarones'(shrimp) and pizza, the kids wanted to surf and swim and do fun physical stuff. The first day we went to the beach, Emma put on her super sexy one-piece and was actually excited about seeing the ocean. Once we walked the 300 meters to the sand, she gave up, she touched the sand with her feet and plopped herself over onto a chaise lounge. I paid the dude 10 bucks to bring her water and cokes and let her sit there until she got bored, she loved it! Needless to say, doing anything that involved physical exertion was a challenge so any surfing, snorkeling, hiking had to be done without her. The day of the luau, we chose to sit in a spot way in the back, with an exit through some plants into the grass to our cabana just in case. Thank goodness for forward thinking. We paid $20 each to sit and eat one plate of luau food and see 1/4 of a dance before Emma had to go. I had ordered her a Mai-Tai and after a few sips she was completely wasted! This is a woman that used to drink Tequila straight with her sisters on Christmas and wouldn't even seem slightly drunk. So there I go walking her back to the condo and leaving the kids at the luau. As I stumbled with my 160 lbs. aunt clinging on to me for dear life, she started dragging me down. I decided to leave her sitting in the grass and went to get help. I snuck back into the luau through the plants and asked Lilipons and Packetman to help me. We tried with all our mights to pick her up which was nearly impossible. Finally I had her clasp her hands around my neck and tried lifting her with a torque motion and it worked, until it didn't and I fell back and she landed right smack on top of me, like a ton of bricks, laughing and eventually peeing on herself (and me as well to be completely honest). So there we are two kids, one petite me with my 160 pound aunt Emma laying on top of me laughing hysterically, which lasted about 15 minutes. Good, deep, incontinence inducing, belly laughs are always good for the soul and this trip was full of them! Eventually and by the grace of God we made it upstairs and into the room. We had to help Emma change into her pajamas and as we were doing that she started yelling "me anda, me anda!"(it's coming) which we know to mean she's going to pee on herself again. We hurried her to the bathroom and fortunately, this time she made it. Finally we got her into bed, tucked her in, turned off the lights and went to get our monies worth at the luau.
The whole trip went just like that and to this day we laugh about all the crazy things that happened. So we returned, all of us in one piece, I went onto PA school, the kids started school and Emma kept declining. In my second quarter of PA school, I received a call from my mom that she and my dad had taken Emma to help at a Habitat for Humanity construction. My aunt had fallen and hit her head and started convulsing, which meant a trip to the hospital for a brain scan. I got the call once she was admitted and diagnosed with a Choroid Plexus Papilloma, a brain tumor. My mom had called me to come into town so I could be there for the surgery, but I know deep in her heart, she called so I could say goodbye to my Aunt Emma. My entire family was there in her hospital room and it was very sad to think of a world without Emma. Fortunately, the surgery went well, tumor was benign and after lots of PT and medications, Emma was back!!
The most fascinating part of the whole story was what my Aunt Emma turned into. She became a art-making machine. She decided to quit working at Pizza Hut and spent the majority of her time in her room, drawing and painting. Prior to her surgery she had dabbled in painting and drawing, but most of work was very plain and similar to all her other pieces. Not after her surgery though!
Her initial pieces were so vibrant and glittery-literally:
SHINY HAPPY ME!!!

BUTTERFLIES!!!!

LOS TRES REYES

Then she transitioned into her cartoon period:

Emma then had a very avant-garde creative time we called 'the hair period'. Jesse was lucky enough to be a recipient of this very interesting stage (Merry Christmas Jesse! Welcome to the Family!), see his genuine excitement and joy shine through his forced smile? That's supposed to be him with two balls-since he likes Basketball and Soccer and a big head of curly hair.

This artistic period consisted of taking hair from her brush and pasting it onto paintings and drawings. We're glad it's over.
Since 2005, she's gone through much metamorphosis, but what's fascinating to us is her rate of production. If she's at home, she's creating. It's fun to see what she comes out with. She's lived with my mom since my grandmother died (my mom was 14, Emma 10) and this is the happiest my mom has seen Emma. Though her idiosyncrasies throw us for a loop sometimes and definitely frustrate my mom at others, she has been a true blessing in our lives. If you're interested in buying any of her pieces let me know. Or if you want her to make an original, let me know, she'd be happy to create something just down your alley, hair, glitter, clear tape and all.