Generations

On Wednesday we buried the last Aunt of the older generation.  Aunt Fran was 95!  and most of the years were healthy and good.  She had started to decline in her 90's as we all would expect but...it was difficult to watch this very strong woman ahead of her times or the last of the "great generation".

When I was 10 years old in 1957 we moved from NH to PA due to military jobs.  My Mom, aka Teddy, was divorced and Aunt Fran was separated.  You see they had married brothers and those brothers - well they weren't so good at being married.  Another story.

My Mom came to to PA first to find housing. Then Aunt Fran brought 4 kids by train - Portsmouth NH to Boston; Boston to Hartford; Hartford to Grand Central; Grand Central NY to Philadelphia Pa; and last to Philly to Harrisburg PA.  We left at 6 AM and arrived at 10 PM on Columbus Day.  Felt like explorers ourselves!  Back in those days everything closed for holidays.  And stores weren't open on Sundays either.

So we waited for the moving van to arrive with our furniture the next week and we moved into the house my Mom found.  For several years we all grew together like one family.  We confounded the neighbors because there were 2 women and no men.  We walked everywhere those first 2 years because we didn't have a car - couldn't afford one.  But we did it - all of it!

Because of those 2 women- Aunt Fran and Mom!

As the years went by, we got a car and Aunt Fran learned to drive.  Mom and I moved to Harrisburg, then back to the West Shore as it is called.  We kids grew up, got jobs, went off to college, got married and started our own families.

Those 2 women still stuck together.  They traveled together; they fought together; they worked together.

When Mom bought a house in the late 70's, Aunt Fran was there every day to help.  That's when she earned the nickname, Foreman Fran!  She showed up every day in a skirt, polyester blouse, pantyhose and pearls.  She donned her plastic rainbonnet to protect her hair and to work she went - painting, digging out bushes, whatever.  Of course, my Mom, not to be outdone, was Sergeant Teddy.  Because she was a sergeant during WWII.

And when my Mom was at her last, Aunt Fran was the one at my side the entire time - all night long in the dark, praying together and alone.

She was more than an Aunt.  I had lots of those.

She was another Mother and I loved her.

Mom, Aunt Fran in the middle and Aunt Alberta before they went to Europe during WWII.