Yes, this post is indeed dedicated and is a tribute to my beloved maternal aunt, Sandra, who unfortunately passed away just a few days ago, when she was only 57.
Aunt Sandy was both my mom and my other aunt, Sue’s, younger sister. My father, brothers, and I had not actually seen her since my grandmother, Lainie’s, funeral service trip, one decade ago in June (she passed away on May 2nd of that year). Yeah, it is normal to not see your aunts that often, yet mom, on the other hand, still had indeed seen her since then.
Poor Sandy had been in certain declining health for the past 6 years. I especially feel sorry for my mom, Aunt Sue, and my Grandpa Jack (Lainie’s widower, and the father of Mom, Sandy, and Sue). Not many, at all, can say that they have lost a younger sibling or youngest child.
Unlike Mom and Aunt Sue, Sandy never had any children, although she did once have a husband, Gary Van Lieu, until they eventually divorced. Later on, Aunt Sandy lived with a boyfriend of hers, Chip, for quite some time.
Aunt Sandy, like her father, was also a proud worker of the Annin Flag Company (seriously, the oldest one in the nation); she herself was the senior vice president of its mass market sales! She had also worked in HR, production, purchasing, and planning at Annin. In addition – this is no joke – she was also the president of the Flag Manufacturers Association of America for quite a few years! She had also been in charge of the coordinating, selecting, and having college scholarships awarded there. Consider such a flag career!
Now, in order to pay tribute to Aunt Sandy’s flag career, I have just posted this link to a video of international flags blowing in the wind (as the video’s title says) for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Next, where would this post be without me talking about memories I have relating to her? First of all, Aunt Sandy was the one who got me this special Christmas ornament which we still annually hang on our tree: a golden Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer one (though interestingly, the ornament’s nose is still red) reading, “Baby’s First Christmas 2003” on either side (for I was simply born that year).
Not long after that, she and Uncle Gary additionally gave me one of my favorite books from when I was little: Gail Donavan and Laura Ovresat’s Sounds on the Farm.
The book was fun since there were all these buttons on the bottom (as shown in the picture above), which made that animal’s call if you pressed one of them.
Certainly my family had also visited Aunt Sandy in New Jersey (my mom and aunts’ home state) before, but the times I went with them were in the Summers of 2009 and 2010, when I was respectively 6 and 7. Man, do I ever have good and unique memories of those trips! One of those memories is seeing parasails for the first time (when we went to a not-so-far beach), as well as learning what they were.
Once some of my family members (including Aunt Sandy and Mom) went parasailing there themselves. I wasn’t with them since they decided I was still too small at the time, and I agreed, but we even have a photo album just for pictures of that experience!
Another of those memories is repeatedly hearing a certain song in Aunt Sandy’s car, which would be Carole King’s “So Far Away.” On top of that, considering that Aunt Sandy is now gone in heaven, having a link to this song here does sound reasonable enough, see what I’m saying?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6iQacVitvk
Furthermore, I’ll bet you have heard of the old Cartoon Network series the Powerpuff Girls, and just below would also just be a specific cartoon drawing involving them that I made for Aunt Sandy’s memory…
What a Powerpuff Girls drawing like this one specifically has to do with this? Well, I’ll be glad to explain that to you below…
Once in 1999, Mom was shopping with our family (before my birth) at Mall of America, and she purchased three Powerpuff Girls dolls from a toys and games store there (one of each Powerpuff Girl). Afterwards, she held on to the Blossom doll for a keepsake, while the other two dolls went to each of her two sisters; she gave the Buttercup doll to Aunt Sue, while the Bubbles one went to, no doubt, Aunt Sandy.
I am also so familiar with the Blossom keepsake doll, since we have held onto it ever since then! (In case you were curious on the status of the other two keepsake Powerpuff Girl dolls though, the Buttercup doll, somehow, no longer appears to be present at Aunt Sue’s house, and who knows where Aunt Sandy’s Bubbles doll is now, especially since…well, you know :(.) I have seen artwork of animated characters mourning a person’s loss on the internet, too.
Lastly, my niece Rita (born only several months before Aunt Sandy’s passing) received her middle name, Elaine, in honor of her Great Aunt Sandy AND Lainie (it was Sandy’s own middle name & Lainie’s first).
MY BELOVED AUNT, SANDRA ELAINE DENNIS VAN LIEU.
JUNE 29, 1966 – OCTOBER 26, 2023
YOU WILL BE MISSED BY EVERYONE, NEVER FORGOTTEN, AND ETERNALLY LOVED. YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE YOUR PLACE IN THE FAMILY WITH US.
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