| Paige Georgi 

| “Every older person in your community has a story worth telling.” In the spirit of this declaration, Ageing in America News and The Legacy Project collaborated to field and publish five intergenerational portraits composed by younger (17-25 years old) writers. Here, Georgi profiles her Aunt Kathi.

| My aunt, Kathi Hudson, is a real estate agent in Lake Forest, Ill. She is 66 years old. She has lived in Lake Forest for many years. She met her husband during her high school years. She has two daughters, and both of them live in Chicago now. 

Born in Lake Forest, she moved to Ohio, where her three younger sisters were born. They moved back to Lake Forest during eighth grade, and during her junior year, she moved to Brussels, Belgium. Then they moved back to Lake Forest and have stayed here ever since. 

I admire my aunt Kathi because she is someone I can rely on for things my mom may not know about. And she is kind to everyone she meets, which has inspired me to be kind to everyone I meet. And that she is able to have a smile on her face no matter what.

Her family had many animals growing up in their house. “Sometimes I felt like my mother liked the dogs more than she liked the kids,” she laughs, adding that it was almost like living in a zoo. Pets included dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, and a duck.

She and her youngest sister (my mom) are 11 years apart. She met her husband, Chris, when she was still living in Brussels and in high school. 

Something she learned from being a real estate agent is, “It’s one of the biggest financial decisions of their life. And they don’t want to trust somebody new.” People want someone who has been showing houses for a long time, and not someone who may have just started in the field. One of the hardest things she knows about being a real estate agent is: “We don’t have a lot of houses; finding your buyers a house is the hardest part now.” On the other hand, sometimes there aren’t enough buyers, so there are too many houses for sale. 

Her children are now 37 and 36. When she became a mom at 29, she often worried about things like kidnappings and viruses. Looking back, she wishes she had worried less about what would happen to her daughters every day when she was not with them. 

Kathi’s father died at the age of 72. As she recalls, “It was heartbreaking because he missed out on so much with my kids.” And there have been many stories told of her father to her nieces and nephew who did not meet her father before he passed away.

In recent years, Kathi had surgery on her knees. Now she is able to do things she was not able to do, like play pickleball or tennis, which are some of her favorite things to do now.

Her oldest daughter got engaged in December. Her daughter met her fiancé through some friends, and they’ve hit it off ever since. They now live together. She said about her daughter getting engaged, “We are so excited because not only do we love RC, but Annie is so happy, I mean, she is so happy, RC is ‘her person,’ and seeing your child that happy is wonderful.” The wedding is in September. 

One thing she wishes she could tell her younger self: “Take better care of your skin when you’re young.”  Because now she has realized that her skin has changed over time and does not look the same anymore. The most special thing that she has done in her life is “having Annie and Kate. And marrying Chris!” 

From what I have learned about my aunt Kathi, there might be some bad times, but everything will turn out well in the end. Sometimes things take a little longer, but they will come to those who wait. When you are grateful for them, they might reward you at the end of your life or when you are at your lowest point. And if you wait for things to come to you, it will reward you later in life with something very special to you.  If I had met my aunt when she was younger, I would have told her,  “You will be amazing when you get older.”

Paige Georgi is a senior at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, IL. Her interests include theater and choir, and she looks forward to studying early childhood education in college next year.