SubscribeAunt Maggie’s long and living faith
Aunt Maggie couldn’t stop praising God. She raised her right hand high, waved it a bit and sang out, “Thank you Jesus” after a great niece and once-wayward nephew took to the podium to say how much her prayers had helped them through difficult times. For those stopping by the table to congratulate her for making it to 100 years, she would chuckle sweetly and give glory to God.
Though her body has been weakened by various illnesses, Aunt Maggie’s mind is still razor sharp and her spirit strong. More than 200 people turned out Saturday in Savannah to honor the matriarch of the Pullin family. “It was like a mini-reunion-slash-church service,” my son remarked Monday. Cousins I had not seen for years and those I’d never met came to honor Aunt Maggie. It’s not often one gets to celebrate a family member becoming a centenarian.
Aunt Maggie, lovely in a power blue outfit and tickled pink by all the attention, sat in a wheelchair at a table in the front of the packed room surrounded by her three sisters -–Aunts Sarah, Flo and LaVera. Two of them are in their mid-to-late 80s and one just turned 92. Still beautiful, lively and sometimes feisty, they are affectionately known as “the sisters” and “the golden girls” by family members. Two of the other Pullin girls, Aunt Ruby and my mother, Nadine, are deceased as are their five brothers.
As reiterated by her those attending her birthday celebration, three things characterize Aunt Maggie’s life– her faith, her love of family and her baking. A church-goer all of her life, she never misses an opportunity to praise God for bringing her through her own trials. While she will tell you what ails her at any given time –”old Arthur,” as she and others call arthiritis, plagues her for example — she doesn’t do it in a complaining way. Her faith is stronger than ever and its reflected in the grace with which she now lives her life. Her faith has strengthened the faith of so many others, including mine.
Aunt Maggie, a mother of two, grandmother, great and great-great-grandmother, never missed a bi-annual family reunion since it began in 1982. She was one of the first to raise her hand when plans were being made to have a reunion cruise in 2000. “I’ll be there, Lord willing,” she chuckled. And she was.
“The important thing for me is coming to meet the different parts of the family,” she said in 2006 of the reunions that have taken place since 1982. “It is an inspiration to me.”
Aunt Maggie’s cakes and pies (and her biscuits) are family legend. They were melt-in-your-mouth good. She had to give up baking about 14 years ago when physical illnesses slowed her down. About four years ago, she lent me her treasured recipe collection so I could compile it into a family cookbook. 
The oldest of 11 children of Willie Oscar and Donnie Pullin, Aunt Maggie spent most of her life taking care of other people. As a youngster, she watched her siblings while her parents worked in the fields. She later worked as a domestic before earning her nurse’s aide pin. She performed nursing work in Savannah for several years, before returning to Vidalia, Ga., to take care of her mother and later her father.
In Vidalia, she worked at a hospital, was a stay-in nurse and babysat while looking after her mother in the evenings. She started baking cakes to supplement her earnings. By 1979, after her father’s death, baking became her livelihood and she was filling orders for people as far away as New York and Florida.
On visits to Vidalia in my younger days, I remember seeing the 6-foot-tall Coldspot freezer in my grandparent’s dining room filled with her customers’ favorite cakes–Carmel and Chocolate, German Chocolate and Red Velvet, and Lemon and Hershey Bar Chocolate.
“I had about as many white customers as colored until people got on diets and everybody got to cutting down on sweets,” Aunt Maggie told me in an interview for the cookbook.
My brother Richard still misses the fruitcakes she baked for him each Christmas, he said at Saturday’s event.
Aunt Maggie, who also made lovely quilts for a time, returned to Savannah after a series of illnesses made it impractical for her to stay by herself. She moved in with her baby sister, LaVera, who took care of her until she could no longer manage because of her own deteriorating health. Then Kim, Aunt LaVera’s granddaughter, and her husband Kenneth, stepped in. They are caring for both ladies in their home.
Kim and my other younger cousins, Deborah and her daughter Joi, made sure that Aunt Maggie’s milestone would not pass without a family gathering. And what a spirited, multi-generational celebration it was.
What a wonderful tribute to Aunt Maggie, who at 100 still lifts our spirits with her praises to God.
Aunt Maggie’s recipe for a successful living:
“Live for the Lord to obtain a good life. Be honest in everything and trust God’s word.”
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