These ornaments were painted by my Auntie Chris and have been shipping with guitars completed this season.

“A.C” for short. The straight shooter Aunt who tells it like it is. But she has that thing that most “tell it like is” types don’t have - she will tell you the good stuff faster than the bad. She will tell you “I love you” so many times that when she tells you you’re messing up you trust her.

Her husband Steve was a truck driver who spoke in an almost unintelligible mutter. They got married young. Watching them argue was as endearing as watching a tough Chicago-Irish truck driver cry when AC surprised him with a bagpipe band when they renewed their vows.

Their daughter Christa was the cool older cousin and powerhouse human being. I drank for the first time at a Blackhawks game with her and we got White Castle and I jumped out of the car and tackled inflatable Christmas yard ornaments to make her laugh. I’m not a club person, shockingly, but when Christa’s cancer came back my uncle rented a limo and we all went to Bar Chicago and we all tried to make her laugh.

Uncle Steve passed away when I was 22. I moved up from Virginia to stay with AC and Christa temporarily. The next year Christa woke up with a lump in her neck. Later that year my dad and her became “chemo buddies”. Christa passed away before Thanksgiving. Chris’ mother got sick the following year and passed away as well.

I was there and I still can’t understand how difficult it is. Life hadn’t just changed it was ruptured. A few years ago I asked herwhat had helped her the most. Could anything? She had tried a lot over the previous decade.

“Things I tried made me think about myself. But that made me sad so I started thinking about other people instead.”

Love. We have tried to fix things by coming up with complicated excuses for being self centered. AC, with a life harder than most, found a better way. If you’re trying to find a way-show love to others.

AC retired last year and got back to her love of painting. She started fallnsnow.com. One of the best humans on the planet has always been part of the story and now you get to see her work too.

-Matt