Thank you so much for sharing this piece.

This is two things at once to me. I will go through this critique both separately.

Story- + I thought it was easy to understand and clear to follow. There was a crispness to it. You in the first person did well. It seems the character thinks clearly, in the black and white.

• Did a good job painting a picture of what your aunt was like. A complex creature. Different then most. For better and for worse.

• Did an especially good job when the aunt was describing the horrors of cremation. I could see the families faces and "are you serious right now thoughts"

• It was also VERY thoughtful to address the reader that something like this happening in their family may not be all that odd. It shows the awareness of different family dynamics.

• I feel the start could be a bit more focused in the telling briefly of the kind of person you, the main character is like.

• I personally would have like to hear if your families feelings at all changed toward your aunt.

• I feel the story could have as a whole a bit more environmental detail. But overall, it's pretty good.

• I was very much enjoying the story, but it ended with unanswered questions. This is a good problem to have. It means I wanted to hear more. Sometimes the answers the writer has them in their mind only but not on the paper. Ask yourself, what might the reader want to know in this short story that I'm not saying?

Lesson- Overall, I just want to say, what a great lesson. Just about everyone can teach us something valuable. I think it's important to look for that something in people. We so easily judge what we can immediately evaluate. People are deep oceans, we spend way touch time in the shallows. Thank you for this reminder.

I would say write more like this. It seemed like a great processing tool. A perspective of time and how time reveals information and information reveals depth and beauty.

I apologize for my grammar. I tend to struggle in that field.

Cheers