Great aunt

As of 6 p.m. today, I learned I am a great aunt for the first time! I'm no longer just a run-of-the-mill, everyday aunt; I'm great! This is the closest I'll come to being a grandparent, as I have no (non-feline) children.

I am now mentally transported back in time to the spring of 1981, my freshman year in college. Picture if you will the state of (tele)communications at that time. Forget social media, even the existence of the web, even phone jacks in each dorm room. Then, at Bethel College's one women's freshman/sophomore dorm, there was one pay phone booth at the end of each hall. An incoming call for a dorm resident was routed through the front desk staffed by a student; when you got a call, the front desk person would transfer it to your hall's pay phone, then "buzz" your room—when you heard the number of buzzes that signified your room, say, 5 buzzes, you would hurry down the hall to pick up your call.

Thus it transpired that in the first week of May 1981, my room was buzzed. I believe it was fairly early in the morning. I went to the hall phone to get my call, learned I was an aunt for the first time, then ran back to my hall cohorts shouting, "I'm an auntie, I'm an auntie!"

Today, that same nephew born in 1981 has become the new father of a baby daughter, thus I am a great-aunt!

As far as my own relationship with my great-aunts, well, I was probably closest to my maternal grandfather Fred Wirth's sister, Eleanor, whom all the extended family simply dubbed "Auntie." Auntie always remembered everyone's birthday and sent me a card every year. After I'd already moved to Pennsylvania in my 30s, when I spent Thanksgivings with eastern PA relatives, we always called Auntie and wished her a happy holiday. Auntie died in 2002—I regret not making the trip to Saratoga Springs, New York to see her before she died.

I was also emotionally attached to my great-aunt "Tanta" Susa (Janzen) Scheffler and her late husband, Onkel Hugo. They and their daughters were such a loving, dear family. The last time I believe I got to see Tanta Susa was when our 1984 Bethel College choir tour took us through Ritzville, Washington.

I was additionally privileged to briefly meet grandmother Mary Dirks Janzen's sisters Tanta Katje and Tanta Agatha at a sisterly reunion at Katje's home in Philadelphia when I was approximately 10-12 (early 1970s).

Evidently, it is the norm in my extended clan for the women to outlive the men. With the exception of dear Onkel Hugo, I have no recollection of getting to know Great Uncles. Of course, grandfather Peter Janzen's brothers met their early demise during the Stalinist regime.

Anyone else have any recollections to share about great-aunties/tantas?