You would have thought Aunt Meryl was an Academy Award-winning actress the way she pranced around last Thanksgiving morning. She must have tried on 15 different outfits before settling on what she called her "high class lounging pajamas," which consisted of a leopard-print, satin jumpsuit with bell-bottom pants and a black satin sash around the waist. Her in-laws were coming over for dinner, and I knew by the way she was "performing" her "wardrobing" session that we were in for some drama when everybody got there.

Let her tell it, and Aunt Meryl was a superstar. Let anybody with common sense tell it, and she did a few big-named commercials and some guest appearances on a couple of popular sit-coms. You would think she was a box office favorite by the way she carried on, but in reality, she hadn't even been an extra in one of the previews. In other words, she was a Hollywood siren wannabe who wanted the fame, but didn't want to put in the work. She just figured that everybody should treat her like she was famous. That's why her career didn't go any further.

However, she was, without a doubt, an extremely beautiful woman. Her skin was the color of butterscotch and her jet-black hair flowed almost as far as her waist. Her eyes were dark and captivating. And for a woman in her late 30s, she could probably make the average 20-year-old a bit jealous with her flawless physique. She walked like royalty, and dressed to the nines whether she was at a New York soiree or shopping at a grocery store. But her attitude was a tad funky...and that's an extremely kind, undeserved understatement.

But acting was probably the best profession she could've chosen, since reality was not her forte. In her world, everybody answered to her. Everybody thought she was beautiful. Everybody wanted to talk to her, and her only, all the time. Everybody thought she walked on water. In her world, she was second only to Christ himself. It was sad...but that was Aunt Meryl.

My sister and I had been living with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Jarrod since our parents died at the beginning of last year. Uncle Jarrod, my father's best friend, was our godfather. I always loved him more than life itself, but I could never figure out why he married Aunt Meryl...other than the fact that she was drop dead gorgeous.

The two of them couldn't be more opposite. Uncle Jarrod was a moderately-handsome, mild-mannered, generous man whom everybody loved. He was the kind of person who never met a stranger, and always did his best to make everybody else happy. He was tall and bulky in a muscular way, and you always felt like nothing bad in the world could happen to you as long as he was around. The women loved him, and so did the men.