Aunt Elizabeth, I Loved Her So Much When I was Three

My aunt, my mom's older sister died when I was three. I only really remember her when I was three years old. She passed on when I was about three and a half.

She had Leukemia and they tried an experimental drug to keep her alive. It did not and my memories of her are just a few and happy ones. Mom left me over there at her house while Mom did some chores. I remember not for buying me toys, but for her cutting up my piece of white chicken in tiny pieces, so I could pick them up with the fork. I remember her for being sweet and kind and when she died, Mom mourned for a year. She did not go anywhere, she stayed home, cooked, baked, took care of us and my brother went to school and I was not in school yet. Mom was so sad, they were very devoted to each other.

She left her husband, a daughter 9 and a son 5. He remarried a year later and his wife was a step-mom immediately. She was a sweet woman in her late thirties, which was old in those days. Somehow, we heard she did not let pictures of Aunt Elizabeth around the house, so my cousin, a boy never saw photos of his mom. I liked Aunt Eve, she was very sweet and never had anything bad to say about anyone I kept in touch with her when I married and invited her to our home several times for dinner. She was so appreciative and very complimentary on everything and everyone.

I remembered that when I was 14, she invited me to spend a month with her and the family in Miami Beach, Florida. She had a high rise in a nice part there and an actor Keenan Wynn and his wife had lived in the building, but she left Keenan and married a very famous and handsome actor and I think they lived in this building. I saw him once in an elevator. I was so excited. His name was Van Johnson.

So when she died, I was sad. I got in touch with my cousin who had never seen a picture of his  mom and asked him, if he wanted to see what his mom Elizabeth looked like when she was about 38. I mailed him photos I found when cleaning out my mom's home. He said he wanted to know where she was buried, so by brother went to an old cemetery where he thought she might be.

He spent several hours there and finally found her gravesite and burial stone with her name and death date on there. We sent our cousin the address of the place and he let me know that one day, he came to town and went there.

This was our good deed for him to see what his mom looked like. It is hard to think of never seeing your mom's picture all your life. Our cousin was then about  fifty-four. This was in about October 1984.

The next day after Aunt Elizabeth died, her brother, my uncle Julius and his wife had a baby girl and she was named Elizabeth.

I always will remember that her vision of her sweet and kind face is one of the first things, that a 3 year old remembered.

It will stay with me forever.

elita sohmer clayman