Aunt Shirley and the Brownies

The very first thing my husband ever told me about his Aunt Shirley was about her brownies. You see, Aunt Shirley brought homemade brownies to every family dinner.

These were not just any brownies, mind you. These were generally recognized as the "Best Brownies in the World." My husband insisted that he had in all his days never tasted brownies better than Aunt Shirley's, and my husband is somewhat of a brownie connoisseur. After several years, Aunt Shirley's special recipe was finally revealed - she made her brownies using Duncan Hines Brownie Mix.

When we were planning our wedding eight years ago, my husband  was delighted when Aunt Shirley, then 80, called to tell him she would be able to come to the wedding.  Her son Seth was flying from his home in New Mexico to New Jersey to meet up with his mom, and then flying with her to Pittsburgh for the wedding.

When Aunt Shirley asked my husband what we wanted for the wedding, he answered truthfully that her presence would be gift enough, and then jokingly added, "Unless you want to bring me some of those brownies of yours - they were always my favorite."

Aunt Shirley and Seth were flying in the day before the wedding in time for the rehearsal dinner.  Unfortunately their plane had been delayed and they had endured a rather lengthy wait in airport terminals on their way to Pittsburgh.  So we were all seated and having dinner when they arrived - a very tired man and his gentle, soft-spoken mother, looking none the worse for wear, carefully carrying a pan of her homemade brownies covered in aluminum foil, which she had made for her nephew because he loved them so.

It seems that Aunt Shirley had carried those brownies in her arms and on her lap all the way from New Jersey - in the car, through airport terminals, on the plane.  She shared the story of her encounter getting the brownies past the security guards in these post-9/11 days of air travel.  The guards gave her a mock hard time, saying that perhaps they needed to confiscate these brownies, in case she was smuggling some contraband in them.  She explained to them that she was taking them to her nephew who was getting married in Pittsburgh, as a special present for him, because, you know, he really loved her brownies.  The guards thought it over, and let her pass with a smile, her brownies intact.

My husband shared Aunt Shirley's brownies with me.  They were some of the best brownies I'd ever tasted.

It was clear to me that Aunt Shirley's secret brownie ingredient was all the love she put into making them and sharing them.

Aunt Shirley passed away yesterday after a long illness, almost exactly eight years after I first saw her, walking into the rehearsal dinner carrying her pan of brownies.  Aunt Shirley accomplished many things in her life besides transforming Duncan Hines brownies into something special.  She had been a newspaper editor and writer, had raised a family, and still occasionally wrote a column on Senior issues in a local paper after her retirement.

As for me, I will never eat a brownie without thinking of Aunt Shirley, with love.