(left: Grandpa Bernie as a young man and Grandma Alyce in her early 20's)
This was one of my Grandma Alyce's collected tins.
It is mostly filled with my grandparents' documents. Last year, I added some photos and negatives of my parents and the eulogies on CD from Grandma's funeral on January 14th, 2008. She died at the age of 96. I miss her and have come to realize that she loved me fully and unconditionally. She had a way with the people who were friends or caregivers and they wanted to bask in the love that she lavished on them.
Some history on Grandma, my mother's mother.
Grandma was born in New York City on March 2, 1911. At the age of 3, she came down with Scarlet Fever and had to stay in the hospital for weeks. She had such a sweet, lilting voice, that the nurses would beg her to sing for them from her crib.
Unfortunately, I do not have a recording of her voice from when she was little girl, so you have to take it on faith (as I did), that her voice was absolutely, heartbreakingly charming.
Fast forward to her late teen years, and she grew into a real looker. According to Grandma, there were numerous wedding proposals from her many beaux who called upon her often.
She went to the University of Michigan and trained to become a hygienist. This was where she met Grandpa Bernie, as he was in dental school.
For as far back as I can remember, she told me she should've married the other guy who was wooing her around the same time. The "one who got away" made a fortune in NYC selling lighting fixtures. This must've hit her especially hard during the Depression and every time she turned on a light and saw the other guy's company name emblazoned on the glass.
That said, my Grandpa was someone I truly loved and felt drawn to. He was handsome with wavy, white hair and a warm smile. Grandpa was stoic, hardly complained and would read the same storybook aloud to me over and over.
Now that you have a little of the history, the following documents may be of some interest:
1.An envelope filled with eulogies from June, 1976 for Grandpa.
Some highlights:
He loved working on inventions.
He wasn't ostentatious.
Trusted everybody, would never count change.
His patients loved him.
2. My grandparents' marriage license. Wayne County, Michigan, January 19th, 1932. He was 25, she was 20.
It was the Great Depression, money was tight, so they eloped.
I always found it upsetting that Grandma voiced regret about marrying Grandpa. I kept wishing the story would change, that she would reveal that Grandpa was her true love.
Didn't she realize that none of us would be here if she'd married the lighting mogul?
My mother, a strikingly beautiful woman, took after my grandfather- and like him, she was stoic and loving.
A few years ago during one of my annual visits to Albuquerque where my Grandma was in an assisted living home, I asked her again. "Was the lighting guy as handsome as Grandpa?"
"Oh, no, " she chuckled, "He was nothing to look at."
Never underestimate the power of attraction...
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