I will miss Aunt Fran. She had so much art left to be created and shared. I remember feeling so proud when as an adult I heard she had complimented the color combinations I used in a childhood painting that my parents had framed and hung, because I have so much respect for her immense creativity that she could express in so many media or forms and that I found inspiring.
I remember fondly visiting her when she lived in Cochiti Lake, NM. One time she dressed me in all red and took a picture of me – I felt special. I wished my hair was a red as hers, as mine only had a hint of red. I remember Brian and me playing on her big blank foam furniture blocks for hours having so much fun – stacking and climbing them, building forts, using them to move around the room without touching the floor and all the other fun stuff kids with energy come up with for fun. She did eventually make us stop, but looking back now I’m surprised she let us play as long as she did, with our yelling and rambunctiousness. I remember her taking us to Cochiti Lake with her big dog. She wore these see-through pink all plastic sandals that were modern and funky at the time that allowed her to walk into the water without hurting her feet on rocks and not get ruined by the water – I thought how cool that she had something I considered ‘high tech’. I remember her driving just me to her house once and we happened to pass a woman jogging. She made a comment to me along the lines of ‘always wear a bra’ otherwise your boobs will sag to your waist like hers (the jogger). I was so shocked by what she said as it seemed inappropriate to say to a (sheltered, straight-laced) kid, but also felt it was cool that she didn’t treat me like a kid at that moment and I was grateful for her sharing this wisdom with me, as I had not previously noticed how different women’s boobs could be.
I remember when I was very young we visited her and uncle John when they were living in NYC being so impressed with the staircase in their apartment – to me it was unlike anything I’d seen before and thought it was so modern and cool, although at that point in my life I doubt I’d ever been in an apartment before, so it likely was not so different as it appears in my memory. I remember being on their flat roof of the apartment building from seeing photos of us playing with a hose up there. I remember uncle John giving me this ‘big’ model airplane (not a model you put together but more like a miniature of the real thing type model) and feeling so special I knew this man tha worked with airplanes and that he would part with such a cool airplane, that I still have today. I recall asking what the TWA on the plane meant and he said “Try Walking Across” and we laughed.
I recall being a teenager visiting the Rorer’s house in NM for the Christmas holidays and Aunt Fran and Aunt Roxanne were there too. She asked if I had calluses on my toes from all the hours ballet dancing I did. I answered yes, being unsure exactly what a calluses looked like but having heard us dancers get them. She asked me to take off my shoes before and show them to her saying she had never seen callused toes and I was really embarrassed and didn’t want to. I kept saying no and she just keeping at me until I finally relinquished and upon removing my socks she right away said loudly those aren’t calluses those are blisters! I was mortified. But as an adult looking back I almost laugh out loud as that was so her – a character of sorts with limited filters.
I remember not long after Tim and I moved into our single family home in PA that had some empty walls in the tall, open entry way and wanting to get her interior designer opinion of some of my thoughts of what to do / what to place on those walls and to hear her ideas. I never did get to do that.
I have one of the prints she created and look forward to having one of the clay pots she created that I will keep displayed to inspire me to be creative once in a while, and remind me that I do have some creativity in me somewhere.