Memory Monday: Great Aunt Era and the Loss of Family History

Vera and Era

GREAT-AUNT ERA AND THE LOSS OF FAMILY HISTORY

I think one of my saddest family interviews was with my husband’s great-aunt Era.  She was in her mid-90s when I interviewed her. Her lifetime had been filled with so many events—WWI, Pearl Harbor, the end of WWII, the first moon walk,  the Kennedy assassination, long dresses to mini-skirts to women wearing pants (which she did), and so very many more. We wanted to record what it was like to live through those events. Unfortunately, her answer to so many of my questions was, “That was so long ago. I just don’t remember any more.”  She was the twin sister to my husband’s grandmother and the last of her generation.  Now all that family history is lost.

           Our videotapes hold a wealth of family history—stories of happy and sad times, memories of those long gone, keys to why certain people turned out the way they have.  They are links tying our past to our future.

            Interesting tidbit about Great-aunt Era and her twin sister, Vera—my husband’s grandmother: On one of our visits to see them, we brought a cake to celebrate their birthday. The cake had two old ladies in rocking chairs piped in icing on the top and the wording “Happy 80^th Birthday” in-between the two chairs. Well, this caused a big discussion between the two ladies. Even though they agreed on the month and day of their birthday (December 12^th), they disagreed vigorously about the year. Vera said 1898 and Era said 1897. They both held their position as the right one. Well, through our genealogy research, we know that 1897 is correct. The family figures that since Grandmother married a man born in early 1898, she stated that she was born in 1898 so she would be younger than him. Oh well, I guess the lesson I take from this—even a hundred years ago, women were vain about their age.