I always thought I was the cool aunt. Turns out, I might be the weird one.
I don’t have any kids, but I love my nieces and nephew as if they were my own. I was present when two of them were born — Nora, the oldest, and Jack, the middle and only boy. I was living in LA when little Lila came into this world.
I lived in Brooklyn when Nora and Jack were younger and got the “mother experience” as a very-present aunt. My sister and her husband live in Connecticut, so they were one hour away by train. I’d visit for weeks on end and even watched the kids by myself when the two of them went on vacation. I’d take them to school, go on field trips, and attend their classmates’ birthday parties. And they’d come to see me in Brooklyn too. We’d ride the subway together, get ice cream down the street, and then sit in my tiny apartment four flights up above a Thai food restaurant and watch TV.
I always considered myself the cool aunt. I was the single one who lived in the city. I wrote books and had a movie made — with Captain America, nonetheless. In LA I worked on the Paramount lot and would send them videos of celebrity sightings. My favorite was when Adam Driver, Brad Pitt, and Charlize Theron filmed a commercial right outside our office window. I sent them the video thinking they’d be like, “Whoa — Brad Pitt!” Instead they were like, “Is that Kylo Ren?!” Ah, the youth.
Nowadays, Nora is in college, Jack is a junior in high school, and Lila is in eighth grade. Nora and Lila are too busy with life to chat with me on the regular. But Jack — my little Jackie boy — still indulges me.
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