George's Aunt

I grew up on decades of music and great artists.  My parents were in their late thirties when I arrived on the scene so I listened to their music—Guy Lombardo, Lawrence Welk, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, The Ink Spots, and many more.  Then there was my siblings, four sisters and a brother, anywhere from eight to fifteen years older than me so my listening pleasure included The Four Lads, Pat Boone, Gogi Grant, Kay Starr, Teresea Brewer, George Jones, Ray Price, and on and on the list goes.  Our family loved music—pop, country, easy listening, movie soundtracks, and in time rock ‘n’ roll.
 Rosemary Clooney, along with The Singing Rage Miss Patti Page, was one of many female singers of that era that received a lot of play in our household.  The fact that she had also starred with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Vera Ellen in one of our all time favorite Christmas movies, White Christmas, only added to her popularity with all of us.  For those who don’t know, most do, Rosemary is the aunt of actor George Clooney.  For those of us who remember her well, the family resemblance is there, though as a female I freely admit I think he is far better looking than she ever was.
 Of all the songs she sang this is the one that comes to mind most often when problems arise in relationships, but it played in my mind for days, even weeks in 1995 when my husband of twenty plus years announced that although we would never divorce he wasn’t sure if he even loved me anymore.  In public we were still the loving couple that young people were amazed by—they couldn’t yet imagine being with one person that long—and friends looked to for advice when their own marriages hit rough spots.  Yet at home I could do nothing right and as time progressed the names that went along with his tirades became more vile and cutting.  It was a difficult time, but we got through it because I refused to accept his assessment of the situation.  It took two years and some traumatic happenings but we worked through it all. 
 When he passed away we were more in love than we had been when we married.