I am the niece of Pat and Henry and the oldest child of Roscoe and Linda Strader, and so my story begins. My family and I lived in a small farming town of Ohio. It was a beautiful October day much like the one we are having now. Aunt Pat and Uncle Henry were visiting us for the week. The guys, Uncle Henry and Dad got up early that Saturday morning to do brother stuff so they drove to Cooper pond for some serious cat fishing. We were given the privilege of staying home and preparing for that nights feast. Well by now you’re probably wondering where the buzzards come in to play, hold on were getting there, just give me a minute.

I’m sure everyone here knows of Aunt Pat’s curiosity and unconditional love of animals and life itself, hence the reason behind the name of is story. Well morning became noon and noon became evening and at last the mighty fishermen returned with their catch of the day. There were anywhere between 17 to 20 fish that were brought back with them to be cleaned and cooked for dinner that night. Uncle Henry and dad cleaned the fish and put the heads, tails and other stuff in a bucket to get rid of later.

The harvest had begun so the crops, which had surrounded the house, had been taken in leaving barren fields of earth. The buzzards were circling up above the area because they saw something dead in the field making Aunt Pat very curious, so she asks what they were doing. We informed her they were getting ready to land in the field to eat whatever they saw. The circle was getting larger and we were now up to about 6 birds above the field. By this time Aunt Pat wanted to see one up close, and we tried to inform her that she didn’t want to get close, they weren’t nice birds!

Everyone got ready and went inside to have a delicious supper of catfish. When we had are fill of fish and other great foods things were cleaned up we went outside to enjoy the wonderful fall night. The buzzards had been forgotten about, or so we thought. We didn’t see Aunt Pat was missing and she had not forgotten about the birds. She was coming up with a plan to see the buzzards up close, so she took the bucket full of fish heads tails and other stuff and spread it in a big circle out in the back field, and there was Aunt Pat in the middle of it.

The buzzards were now flying directly overhead and they brought friends. If I remember correctly there were about fifteen of those big black ugly birds, and they were getting lower and lower and lower. I can still remember seeing the underside of them and the large wing span of these fascinating birds. Uncle Henry started yelling for her to leave the field and come back to the house, she was in danger, and mom made us go inside.

I’ll never know if she was standing there when they finally landed however I will always remember the courage she had to do something different. Aunt Pat wasn’t afraid of anything she did baked and decorated cakes, sang, danced or enjoyed learning the art of interior decorator, her on look of life was just one adventure after another. Aunt Pat was a carefree person who found joy in everything she did. I hope she touched your life as she has mine and left you with the power to fulfill your dreams. I am so blessed to have had this wonderful lady in my life.  

                                                                                                                               PeeWee