Apropos of nothing, but when I was young (ages 2-4) and living in Maryland, my parents were friends with a semi-retired nurse who was SUPER old. Like, she was so old her hair had turned grey. We're talking OLD.

Despite her absolutely ancient age, she babysat for me sometimes, and she liked Three Musketeers candy bars, which happened to also be my favourite. We bonded over the rare but deeply held belief that chocolate candy tastes good, actually.

Her name was Bea, and I was encouraged to call her (and did call her) Aunt Bea. At the time I thought her name was just spelled Aunt B, which seemed a little weird. Not inappropriate though, as she would have been the first to tell you that she was a little weird.

In addition to weird and old, she was also super fun. Though mostly retired she was on a list the hospital could call when they were unexpectedly short-staffed. A substitute nurse, if you will. From working as a nurse in every part of the hospital you could imagine, she had a whole raft of stories to regale your average three year old. On top of that, she knew things my dad didn't, and he was a doctor and she was a nurse, so he was supposed to know more but sometimes he didn't! She would tell me about all the times she caught doctors about to do something stupid, which definitely went over well with 3 year old me.

On top of that, she loved reading books. Like real books. Books with no pictures and lots and lots and lots of words. Books so long that we could read them for a while and then stop and then start reading them again the next time we saw each other and still not be done.

Later I found out that there was an actor named Bea Arthur who ALSO had grey hair. Apparently Arthur was named after Aunt Bea (which made me love her a little extra). But the whole rest of my life I've never had another friend or relative named Bea, so even today if you say the name Bea I will immediately think of Three Musketeers and LONG books and stories about how my dad doesn't really know as much as he thinks he does. Good times.

I'm sure Bea has passed by now, but those memories are forever.