I recently received the sad news from my brother Brian tonight yet previous updates were provided by Cousin Leesa over the weekend. Letty had been more ill than I realized since her surgery several years ago.
However, I want to talk about the great memories my aunt provided Brian and me. While Skip was the prankster and Chief the businessman, Letty was the hostess. Many Maggi gatherings were at her home or in my mind, coordinated if we went to Skip’s house. The title I give Letty isn’t meant to be an oversimplified, sexist stereotype. Being a hostess for a family as large and vocal as the Maggis is a logistics feat on par with the invasion of Normandy. She was equally generous on a smaller scale, namely with entertainment and food. Going to her place was another exciting journey soaked in anticipation: cousins Leesa and Jason were around our ages, the cable TV was different and closer to Chicago culture, and it was just exciting. I never recall Letty to ever be annoyed to see us, namely in the face of 1985 being really distressing.
On the flip side, we also had a couple visits to our various homes from her. The most memorable was in the Seventies. It was just Letty. She came down to Champaign-Urbana for something work related. My parents took us all out to dinner, Uncle John’s Pancake House!; kids are easily impressed with breakfast food as supper. There was mostly “grown-up” talk, however she included us in some conversations, namely a story telling us how Leesa and Jason enjoyed their last visit in Macomb and the tricycle races we hosted in the basement. I always remembered her closing joke regarding weight loss. Mom complimented Letty how much better she was looking and she laughed saying, “just another 20!”
Another facet I want to bring up she instilled in me was her tenacity and union membership when she worked for the phone company. These days, unions are bashed, called relics, demonized by billionaire thieves and their elected tools, and then exaggerated as a threat via Citizens United (like SEIU has pockets as deep as the Kochs?). When Grandma Maggi was ill and dying, Letty handled the lion’s share on the arrangements. The other siblings lived in distant locations (Florida, Alaska, North Dakota and I think Hawaii) so she had to step up. I’m sure it was a draining, time-consuming experience. Letty’s rational employer didn’t help and thankfully the union thugs went to bat to prevent any disciplinary action from happening in the era of St. Reagan’s compassionate conservatism. Union or no, Letty was a hard-working person all the time I knew her. Leesa once told me her mother was a blackjack dealer on an Indian Reservation when she could’ve been enjoying retirement. My point? Contrary to my Aunt Letty probably belonging to the lazy 47% Mitt Romney got busted for shit-talking over in secret (she was a woman after all), she was the antithesis of his cynical-bigoted statement.
As I wrap this up, I had an epiphany entailing my Maggi DNA from those who passed. From Grandma Maggi I inherited the love of Sci-Fi; Skip is humor and being uppity; Chief’s was planning/adjusting (rather latent in my life) because he once said, “I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up;” and now Letty I would say her compassion/mother hen abilities (another latent thing!). At work, I am the Counselor Troi amongst the senior specialists for I focus on supporting my co-workers via emotional, mental and spiritual issues. Computer work is about fixing more than technical issues.
I do hope Uncle Cliff, Leesa and Jason find my post at least comforting. I can’t vouch for all of its accuracy. When Dana visited me a couple years ago, I’m confident I projected what I felt about Uncle Skip to her. I’d feel the same way with my parents, I knew them best. Leesa tried to relay my parting message to Letty today which I want to share with you all here online:
If you get a chance, tell her thank you for always being a generous host to me and she’s in my thoughts. She’s an awesome person with a great spirit and will. She helped foster a great, diverse family.