#2daysto40 This is my 2nd mom Mrs. Hester Polk, but everyone calls her Auntie. If I wasn’t with my mom, then there was a high probability that you would find me with Auntie. I went to her home every morning before school and I caught the bus to school from her house. She was a childcare specialist and had her own nursery and babysitting service. This is where I was in the summers before I started traveling to Baltimore. She taught me a whole lot. I remember as a child, she had a routine for every child she kept. She loved to watch TV. So she made us take a nap before Young & The Restless came on. We had lunch while The Price is Right, and we couldn’t wake up from our nap until Guiding Light came on. She potty trained me, and took care of me like I was her son. She made the best Cream of Wheat ever! She would let me play outside and go play basketball until the street light came on (do kids today have this kind of restriction?). She was waiting by the door too, she was not playing about being in before that street light came on. . . I remember when we used to have communion on 1st Sunday at church. When the ceremony was over, I would follow her back to the kitchen where I would drink the rest of the leftover communion drink (man, that Welch’s grape juice was so good 😋). I remember I had a wound and I needed to put rubbing alcohol on it so it could heal, but that felt like the worse pain ever. So she would put it on me and let me run the pain off and then come back to put some more on. I used her encyclopedia collection to do all of my book reports and research papers all through grammar school. She’s been at every important moment in my life. When my mom couldn’t be there, she was there. She raised me. She kept me. She loved me like I was her son, and in many ways I was her baby boy. She would pick me from school, church or band practice. She showed me what unconditional love was. I am not alive today without her in my life. She raised and cared for a lot of children, but I was her 1st and favorite. Love you Auntie... . . #40daysuntil40 #countdownto40 #anthony #auntie #melrosemanor #westwood #bing #beanie #jamesanthony #james #auntieraisedme #moms #lauderdale (at Oakland Park, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp6U11CF6UO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ze07g3k7fn9x