My aunt was different than most.
Most are the loving kind that will be like a second mom to you.
Others are the fun aunt, the antithesis to your parent’s strict ways.
A dichotomy that’s so clear and consistently present you don’t know how your mother and your aunt are sisters.
However, my aunt wasn’t the sweet one or even the fun one, no she was better, she was a phoenix.
I have never seen a woman put up with so much in her life and yet still come up fighting with a passion like a flame.
She had three husbands.
The first was an alcoholic who loved the bottle more than her.
He left her more broken than the bottle he smashed against her face.
She mended her broken wings and flew out of there.
The second made an alcoholic look clean.
Needles numbed his pain and eventually numbed hers as well.
The fire wasn’t roaring, it was barely smoldering, an ember flickering here and there to remind you it was alive.
He lost his job one day and they ran out of that junk, that fucking smack that ruins you more than a physical one.
She sobered up and went outside for the first time in weeks, that fresh air provided the oxygen the flame needed to blaze again.
She wished him well and left that needle-laden nest.
The third one was actually the best one she found.
He was loving in all the ways a person needs.
He gave her a new lease on life.
He was like gasoline for her fire and the world could see her light.
Ironically, he died in a house fire a year into their relationship.
The tears that poured almost drenched the flame entirely.
However, something told her there was still a reason to fly so she came back and showed me what a true fighter really is.
She let it be a sign that she was meant to love herself and out of the ashes of her past relationships, she built an empire to take in abused women and get them back on her feet like she was able to.
It seemed like her destiny was to be destroyed over and over until she never came back but she proved that we create our own fates, no matter what the universe intends.
OSW is a lot like my aunt, Chronoa.
She’s been involved with a countless list of suitors and places that want to be home for her.
The taproom for alcoholics and addicts, a slaughterhouse that treats people like pieces of meat, and a schoolyard that shows people what it’s like to have fun again.
It gets crushed multiple times and it always comes back.
You can try to destroy it like many others have but it will ultimately be fruitless.
OSW isn’t a dog to be tamed and made to sleep when it’s time has come.
It’s a phoenix and even if you turn it to ashes, it will come back to prove you wrong and burn you alive.
Just like my aunt did, just like my lord did, just like I did, it will prove fate wrong.