What I Learned From Ant Cinny and Her Candy Dishes

What I Learned From Ant Cinny and Her Candy Dishes.

My cousin Sue Gillespie stood up at my aunt’s funeral and said, “I’m married into this family, so believe me, you people don’t even know that you practice radical hospitality. “

 I thought about that, and it seems in our family they say it this way, “Come on by, the door is always open. Eat what we have, sleep where there’s room. Make sure you come early and leave late and bring your dog too.”

My Aunt Cinny, or Ant Cinny, as I always referred to her, had a lot of covered casserole dishes that she called candy dishes and kept full in her dining room hutch. The candy was usually from the last holiday, so you might be eating Christmas candy near Easter, but the candy was always there.

My children knew it was there because I taught them how to raid her candy dishes, just as I did when I was a kid. Ant Cinny and Uncle Hank, always made you feel like they weren’t doing anything until you arrived. They asked questions and listened to your answers, no matter if you were a kid, an elder like them, or the in-between like me. 

I sometimes felt hassled by kid rising, but Ant Cinny was always was delighted by my children. She could be counted on to walk around the Oakdale Mall with us. She was there when each of them came home from the hospital. She helped my mother babysit when Roger and I took the youth group to the Creation Festival every year. She never forgot their birthdays or a holiday, and most of her presents were wonderful silly things form the dollar store.

At her funeral we all told stories about her kindness and I suddenly saw that example by example she taught us to say, “Come on by, the door is always open. Eat what we have, sleep where there’s room. Make sure you come early and leave late and bring your dog too.”

Sometimes my family is a little too much, but I have candy in my dishes and I always know they have some for me in theirs.