I LOVE love!!

Aunt Juliette and Uncle Neville have been married for 48 years. From the day I walked into this house, I've taken note of their interactions, and I am totally fascinated. As a kid, I never really understood the tradition of the woman tending to the needs of the family as Guyanese women do. Most times I rebelled against the idea, but it really seems to work for Aunt Juliette. Uncle Neville was a police chief in Georgetown, and then chief of security for the Bank of Guyana, and is now retired. He was also a rifle shooting champion in his heyday. His rifle shooting hobby left him with limited hearing and diabetes has claimed most of his vision, but he is as mischevious as a 12 year old kid!

Aunt Juliette prepares all the meals for the household. Everyone in the house knows that there will be breakfast prepared when you wake up, lunch after noon, and dinner will be ready to eat by 6pm. Aunt Juliette seems to be the queen of her household-she keeps everyone in order with a gentle, easygoing spirit. In the evenings, she laughs heartily at my cousin Tariq's stories from school, or his 12-year old opinions on current events. During the day she takes care of the house and maintains uncle Neville's insulin shots and medicines.

I witnessed the cutest scene this morning: I was downstairs with Aunt Juliette, and we were chatting while she was working in the laundry room. Uncle Neville called out for her a few times from upstairs, and soon decided to call her on the house line. On the phone, he asked her what she was up to, and she asked if he was ok, if he needed anything from downstairs. After all of that yelling and the phone call, it turns out that all he wanted was to tell Aunt Juliette the score from the world cup game he was watching. She hung up the phone cracking up at her husband, and went upstairs to share in his excitement for the game.