Another one of my favorite stories Enee ever told me was the story about what she wore to her first day of work.  Aunt Enee's husband, Oscar, was a wonderful man, and he was always known to be smart with his money and didn't splurge very much at all if at all.  Before Enee started her first week of work, she said she went out and bought a few outfits to wear to her new job.  She said she bought them from a store that was very sensibly priced and when she got home she showed them to her husband.  As she tells it, after looking at the clothes, Oscar turned to Enee and told her, "No wife of mine will be going to work in those clothes."  He told her to take the clothes back and that she was to buy her work clothes from Neiman Marcus and nowhere else.  My mother always told me that Aunt Enee was a beautiful woman.  I wish I could have seen her dressed for her first day of work.  I bet she looked breathtakingly sophisticated.

Enee told me the story once of how she had landed her job.  As part of the application, aside from being able to type, she was asked if she knew shorthand and she said that she did of course.  She got the job and went to work.  On one of her first days, she was asked to attend a meeting and to record everything in shorthand.  After the meeting, her boss quickly realized that she indeed did not know shorthand.  She was nervous that he might let her go, but he never did.  She was a good worker and I can only assume that she was too much fun to be around for anyone to ever let her go even if she did fib a little on her application.

Everyone knows Aunt Enee loved to tell stories and, boy, could she tell 'em.  I learned a lot from her stories, not just about her past, but about life and people.  One story that has always stuck with me is a story she told me about the man she used to work for.  Her boss was the head of the Texas Bankers Association and sounded like a very important man.  I always imagined he worked behind a beautiful, large desk that sat in the middle of a big room in a tall building in downtown Dallas with Enee working just outside at her typewriter, although, in reality, I really had no idea what her work place looked like.  She told me one day that her boss had lost his wife at a relatively young age.  She said he loved his wife very much and missed her and that every year on the anniversary of her death, he would send everyone in the office home and he would spend the day in his office by himself.  I can't remember if this next part is part of the story Enee told or something that I imagined myself, but for some reason, I remember she said that after he had sent everyone home he would lay his head on his desk and cry.  This story has stuck with me forever and taught me that no matter who you are or how important you become there will be days when all you want to do is send everyone home, lay your head on your desk and cry.  It taught me that the great equalizers in life were love and death and I will always be humbled by that thought. 

Aunt Enee and Uncle Oscar used to love calling me this very silly name when I was a little girl. I dont remember this, but Enee told me that I was offended the first time she called me "puddin head duffy" because I thought it was a bad thing. She explained to me that it wasnt bad at all and from that point on, it made me feel so happy inside when she would call me that everytime I saw her. In fact, even up until I was in college, she addressed my cards and letters as "puddin head duffy". The term is very near and dear to my heart. I am not sure where in the world she came up with that, but I am sure glad that she did.

Enee was spending the night with us.  Next morning Texas was playing A&M.  Early.  She was still in bedroom.  Texas ran the ball for a touchdown and I started yelling and pounding the table.  She came flying out of the bedroom thinking someone had broken into the house and we were in a fight.  Sorry, it's just football.  Sorry I scared you, but we did get a laugh out of it.

Aunt Enee told this story just about every time I saw her.
When my Mother was having my "Baby Brother", my sweet Aunt Enee came to babysit. We went for a visit to see Grimmy, who Aunt Enee explained was my "Other Grandmother" - I was too young to understand that I had two Grandmothers - so she tells it:  that I stood up in the back seat of the car and said:....going to see "Anutter Grandmudder?"
She would laugh.

When I was young, we would visit Aunt Enee and Uncle Oscar in Hideaway.  We always enjoyed spending time with them there and when the day was done our family would pile into the minivan and head home.  As we were shutting the car door, Aunt Enee would come running out of the house with napkins in her hand and she would give a napkin to me and both of my sisters.  Inside the napkins were each a $20 dollar bill.  Aunt Enee wanted to send us off with a parting gift, but wanted to hide it from Oscar who was a very frugal man and I guess she thought he wouldn't approve.  I always thought it was very clever of her to stash the cash in napkins, but I wonder if Oscar ever thought it was strange that Enee liked to gift napkins to her great nieces.

Aunt Enee loved a good pair of beautiful shoes.  I always made a point to wear the nicest pair of shoes I had when I would go visit her because I knew she would always notice them and it made me feel special.  To this day, I think of her when I put on a fancy pair of shoes and wonder what she would have thought of them.

When Enee lived at The Forum in Dallas, I would go visit her and we would often have lunch in the dining room downstairs.  She was very popular with all of the people living there and as we were eating people would stop by to say "hello" and have a chat with Ms. Tyler from Tyler as everyone called her.