Aunt Gertrude

I never really knew my father's mother. She died when I was a small child and while I have wonderful stories of her from my dad, it was his older sister that was my true grandmother. She was 21 when he was born and already a teacher herself but somehow they maintained a close and loving relationship. When my sister and I entered the picture she became the loving matriarch in our lives.

Aunt Gertrude was big in every way. Her father's daughter (he was 6'6" tall) she stood 6' tall with a big bone frame. In a time when being skinny wasn't the art form that it is now, she had a healthy body mass--not fat, just full figured. She was a woman ahead of her time. Most women in her day married, raised a family and kept the house until they died. She was a career woman who spent her summers traveling or attending far flung universities. She maintained two homes. During the school year she lived in Loraine, Ohio, where she taught high school business classes. During the summers she moved back to Kentucky and became our constant companion.

She loved to see new places and meet new people. Every chance she got she and a lady teacher friend would travel to far distant places. I remember her traveling to Scotland, Switzerland, and all over Europe on various tours. When I was in my leaf collecting stage, she collected various plants from across England, Scotland and Ireland meticulously labeled as to place, location, and history. She sent postcards, letters, pictures, and vivid descriptions of the lands that she visited to an enthralled niece. I got many an "A" on reports in geography and history lessons using her memorabilia. To my delight and astonishment she recorded a fascinating week spent in Marrakesh during the height of the drug era in that city. This at a time when my generation was just singing songs about it. Aunt Gertrude didn't know (or accept) that women were supposed to be meek, reticent and stay at home.

When I was fourteen she took my cousin and me to New York to the World's Fair. Until recently my one and only trip to the City. In a week we managed to sample everything that the city had to offer and cover the wonders of the World's Fair. We ate in Greek, Italian, Indian, and Chinese restaurants. We sampled the wonder of an auto mat where food was taken from little one foot cubicles and grazed the local cafeteria. We went to a Broadway play and shopped at Macy's. My most vivid recollection of the trip is being utterly exhausted!

At one point I remember being at the Fair and waiting for my Uncle and cousin to meet us. We had found a bench and were enjoying the shade when I fell asleep. Still more child than adult, I curled up contentedly on the bench and napped. To my utter horror this very nice looking young man woke me when he inquired if I was ill. Looking totally fresh and rested my aunt engaged him in conversation learning that he was a host for the Fair. In the meantime I sat like a zombie with seat slat impressions on my face wishing the earth would open up and suck me in.

One time when I was staying with her I asked her why she had never married. She went to the closet, removed a box of pictures and dug around in them for a few minutes. Finally she held up a photo of a tall, slender young man in a white sailor suit. She told me that if he hadn't been killed in the war (WW I) she might have married him. He was the only man she had met who was taller than she was! Beneath the light manner was, I suspect, a tragic love and a little truth. She was bigger than life and not many men would have lived up to her.