My Tribute to Thetis Anna Scott (Peterson)

Thetis Anna Scott ~ 1939-2022

 

Last week I had a dream that my Aunt Thetis would be called home to heaven on December 12th. We all knew she had been suffering. God did call her home, regardless of my dream, on Monday, December 12th, 2022. Her suffering is no more.

 

I received the news of her passing while on a long drive for work. I had 2 more hours to go and I turned my thoughts to my Aunt Thetis. I tried to think on memories that we shared and to revisit the smiles, laughs, and moments that we shared, ourselves, and almost always with others. I am not as good at the memories as I would like to be.

Either way, I didn’t get too far into my thoughts before an emerging message took center stage of my thought process.

Here’s where it all starts, as far as this tribute goes. And honestly, this is a theme in the lives of the family members past and present. My Aunt Thetis must have grown up with some pretty awesome parents. I personally know this to be true. Wonderful, godly, kind, loving parents. And I would dare say that my experiences with all 10 of their children would reflect that last sentence. What a family, the Peterson family.

 

 

Thetis Anna Scott (Peterson) was just my Aunt Thetis to a kid that didn’t know too much. One of my mom’s older sisters. Hey, there’s a lot of them. Five brothers and four sisters. For many of my childhood years, we, our family, was one of the furthest from the old farm on the Charleston Road in New Brunswick, Canada. We were living in southern New Hampshire. So we didn’t get to go to church with the family that was still in that area. We only visited a few times a year. But, when we got there we were treated almost like royalty.

My Grammy, my Grampy, my aunts and uncles, and cousins always seemed excited to see us. Maybe they actually were. I know we looked forward to seeing all of them. My Aunt Thetis always showed true interest and excitement in the catching up on stories and events that involved us kids and our whole family.

I fast-forward to the last 15 or so years, since my Uncle Carl Peterson passed away in 2008. I am blessed to have been born into this family in the first place. Then, my good fortune has continued right to the present-day. I have been a part of maybe a dozen or two trips to New Brunswick since 2008.

On these trips to Canada I would bring my Mom to see her family, and sometimes my Dad too (before he was called home). Sometimes I would just meet my parents there, and then in the last six years, it’s been just Mom and I. On many of these trips, I would stay in Woodstock, New Brunswick with my Aunt Thetis. Her children (my dear cousins), Stuart and Sondra were always looking after me too. I could not have been catered to any better than the way they took care of me.

 

 

So, my Aunt Thetis. Thetis Anna Scott (Peterson) will always be a smiling, quiet, gentle woman in my memory. But she will also be a smart, very funny, kind, generous, woman with just a hint of mischief in my memory too. Here are a few memories from visits to Woodstock and beyond.

• Nights could start with my cousins and I visiting together, and Aunt Thetis eventually heading to bed. The night would continue with time spent in the living room and might include the unofficial Olympic sport of scrolling through 7,000 channels on the TV. There would be at least 9 channels carrying curling. After finding that there was nothing to watch (sometimes we did watch sports and other good stuff), we might get a return visit from Aunt Thetis.
• Often times the return visit from my aunt would move the whole scene into the kitchen for snacks that could include anything from a breakfast item, Sunday dinner, or late night comfort foods. And these impromptu ‘meals’ might take place at any time from 10pm until 2am. We didn’t keep a tight schedule.
• Almost every single late night visit carried on with tremendous amounts of laughter. We would poke fun at ourselves, build on that theme and then roar at ourselves while adding to the legends of mishap.
• Among the wonderful traits that Thetis Anna Scott possessed, was the ability to laugh at herself. She would tell a story that could be as simple as forgetting where she had set down her toast, and the next thing you knew, we were doubled over laughing and pounding the table with tears running down our cheeks. Oh man, we had some hilarious times.
• I can not think of Aunt Thetis, nor talk of her for too long without mentioning, not only her kindness, but her generosity. She would literally give, provide, share anything and everything she could to make someone else more comfortable even if it was to the detriment of her own resources for her family. Incredible selflessness. Such a lesson to take with me.
• At least one time (probably more) I did take her on a ride over the old roads and out to the old farm, just her and I. I loved to ask her questions, sometimes leading questions, to get her mind’s eye warmed up and running faster and faster all the while. What really put the stories and memories over the top, were the little bits of humor she would entwine into the old adventures from the wisdom of years gone by and having lived through such moments.
• My favorite times with my Aunt Thetis were in the following two scenarios:
  • When I could get the floor for a moment to direct the conversation around the old kitchen table in Woodstock, I would start working my aunt’s memory. As we worked through visualizing the lay of the land, the house, barn, and outbuildings on the old farm (when I was a small boy, or before), she lit up. I could see it in her eyes, the long lost memories coming back to life. There was joy. There was excitement. There was that little twinge of innocent mischief in the memory, or the telling of it. It was beautiful!
  • The other was when I would take Aunt Thetis from Woodstock and we would make the rounds, picking up whichever sisters and double cousins where available, or how many ever could fit in my minivan. We would drive the old roads out to the farm. We would explore places that were new to me but were like an indelible marked map in the memories of these ladies from the generation before mine. The stories would fly around the van like recounting a mix of the best things in life. The laughs would get so loud that breathing would become difficult and someone with their second wind would pick up and run with it. Songs would be sung, old hymns mostly, still beautiful. I would drive. Sometimes I might egg on the humorous side of things, but mostly I thanked God for the blessing of being in that place, at that time, with these people.

 

Aunt Thetis would always implore me (and others) to make ourselves completely at home. It didn’t matter when. Just show up and you had yourself a home away from home for as long as you needed it.

My aunt, Thetis Anna Scott (Peterson) was called to her heavenly home on Monday, December 12, 2022. She is loved. She will be missed. And one day, when I am called home too, I expect that my Aunt Thetis will greet me, and tell me to come in and make myself at home. Completely.

 

 

Thetis Anna Scott

1939-2022