There have been many happy memories throughout the forty some years of our knowing each other. But I think the better memories are the ones shared with the girls. I was thrilled to become an aunt back in 1968 and remember that I was angry to think that my boyfriend at that time got to see my baby niece before I did.
Having Susie around was like having a real life baby doll that I could dress up and take care of.
I remember feeding Susie watermelon and watermelon juice that first summer. By the time she was 3-4 months old, she was eating pickles.
I can also remember sitting on the floor with Susie by the basement door. We had a guinea pig down in the basement. She called it a piggy. We would sit and pretend that we could catch the invisible little piggies coming under the basement and then laugh as we did so.
When Laurie arrived on the scene, I was seeing someone else and she was the first baby he had ever held. Shortly after her arrival, I met the man who I would marry three years later.
I remember there weren't car seats back then and Bill had a Ford pickup truck. Laurie would stand on the seat and chatter constantly. She became Bill's "motor mouth." That girl never shut up!
I can't remember how many times I would take a fussy Laurie and put her down on her belly on the bed and pat her to sleep.
When Jennie arrived, Ela said, "No more!" I remember bringing Jennie (age 6 months) to high school with me as my senior class project because we were studying baby and child care at the time. I was very comfortable having Jennie with me, but my teacher (who had no children) was floored!
Often times I would take a bus to Merrow Road and then walk to the trailer park to go visit Ela and the girls. We kept one another company, playing with the girls and drinking cups of tea.
Those were busy, happy years watching those kids grow up.
Having Ela around was like having an older sister. She had a great sense of humor and whether we wanted to hear her opinion on a subject or not, she often voiced it!
I recall the summer of 1970. They had decided to take a trip to Maine with us. Steve told Ela to make plenty of coffee for the trip up. Back then money was tight, beside the fact that there weren't coffee shops on every corner. Ela made a good sized container of coffee and as he asked for cup after cup, she would fix it for him and hand it to him for most of the six hour drive to the cabin in Maine. It wasn't till we arrived there that we found out that the coffee was decaf. We laughed it off, but Steve didn't. Ela was always a tea drinker and the brand of coffee she had purchased was a better buy!
When my father was alive, he always called his granddaughters "split tails." So when I got pregnant he hoped he would finally have a grandson. In fact Ela often commented that it probably be a boy since my husband already had two sons with his first marriage. My father was extremely disappointed to be presented with two more granddaughters before he was presented with a grandson. However, he loved them all dearly. He would bribe the kids with pennies, stories and candy.
I will miss Ela dearly and will always be Thankful for the time we got to spend together. Here was a woman who knew her own mind and when she made up her mind to do something, she did it.
Ela is has been a pleasure to know you. Thank you so much for my nieces!
