AUNT MUTE

Yes, that's what she was called. I don't know if I ever remembered her given name. But Aunt Mute it was.
The nickname came about before I was born and continued until she was found, slumped in her favorite chair, blanket over her lap, dead from a heart attack.
Her husband, my uncle died in a car crash. And with her children living in other states she was mainly on her own.
She began to watch movies on her big screen television. She loved movies. Any kind but horror.
Romance, comedy, science fiction, historical.
Never going out to a movie theatre but renting, buying or picking what was on the channels at a given moment.
She had a favorite chair. A red and blue plaid cushioned armchair with an ottoman to match.
In the summer she would open the windows on either side of the television and let the breezes blow the curtains. If it was hot, she had two floor standing fans that she placed on either side of her to give more motion to the air.
If it was winter she had a small space heater that was placed in front of the ottoman to warm her always cold feet. And her favorite blanket crocheted by herself on her lap. Maybe sometimes there were gloves on her hands.
That was Aunt Mute.
But how did she get that nickname? Aunt Mute!
One day she hadn't turned up the sound on the television. She made tea and the remote lay on the kitchen table. Settling herself in her chair, the tv on but she discovered she forgot the remote.
Lazy, she decided to see what she could figure out without sound.
No speech, no music, no noise.
Through careful observation, she began noticing the subtle differences we don't see when sound is on.
The nuances of facial movements, of body language, the placement of each of the characters.
She observed the background, the shape of a room, the furniture and where it was placed.
How they moved through traffic and space when outside.
As she became more proficient at it, Aunt Mute discovered a new world, a new vision.
She obtained a video on how to read lips. That broadened her perspective.
That is why she was called Aunt Mute