Realization

I have been thinking about my Aunt for the last few days. She is 86 years old, but you would never know by looking at her. She can out walk and out work me even on one of her bad days. She seems to have never aged.
Sunday my sister-in-law said she saw her walking in back of her yard with a garbage bag and shovel. "B" said she walked down to see what my Aunt was doing, and she told her that her cat had died. She had thought about putting him out with the trast, then decided she would bury him if the ground wasn't too hard. B helped her dig a hole and then had a quiet moment.
She said she got the cat 3 weeks after my Uncle had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She walked the road for excersice and down by the pickle factory, and one day, this orange kitten showed up. She appropriately named him Pickles, and took him home. He was a huge thing, weighing in at 28 pounds at one point. He saw her through her husbands death and kept her company for a good 12 years.
I had talked to her last week and she had said Pickles was very ill, and tears welled up in her eyes. She knew he wasn't going to last much longer, and I didn't have the words to tell her how sorry I was that he was so sick.
I have been thinking about how much sorrow this old woman has seen in her life, and it has also suddenly occured to me that she won't be around forever like I would like to think. I saw her mortality, I guess I want to say. I have been kind of sad the last couple of days. It was rainy and gloomy today. The skies opened up and cried, and so did I.