“The time will come when their memory will
bring a smile to your lips before a tear to your eye.”
Joe Biden
I love this quote and I can finally relate this to
Nana. This week on September 15th, Nana would’ve celebrated her 101st
Birthday. I thought she’d live to be at least 100. She made it to 97. Still an
amazing accomplishment for a woman who survived so much. A National Depression,
World War II, an alcoholic husband, four kids, a brutal factory job, a divorce
and independent living until almost 95.
Memories of Nana now bring me smiles almost daily.
This summer when I made Nana’s strawberry jam recipe, the sweet smell of the
bubbling strawberries made me feel her presence. I remembered when she was
beside me, stirring the hot berries while I added the multiple cups of sugar. I
could almost hear her say, “Don’t pour the sugar in too fast—it’ll burn.”
In my mind, I could picture her in her red print apron, spooning a ladle of the
scalding jam into a little glass ‘tester dish.’ The tester was to make sure the
batch had jelled properly. Although, I think the dish might have been an excuse
for both of us to taste the sweet sticky results. And now when I make her
recipe, I always have a tester dish, and smile as I lick a spoonful of my
shiny, perfectly jelled jam.
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Nana's red print apron and strawberry jam from Nana's Recipe |
Reminders of Nana are everywhere. I recently saw a
little old lady in a tan colored car driving slowly down the street. You could barely
see her head above the steering wheel. I smiled and remembered Nana driving her
beige 2002 Chevy Cavalier on her way to the Weis grocery store a few miles from
her apartment. Her thick seat cushion raised her barely five-foot frame just
enough for her to see out the windshield.
Nana loved her car and she loved to drive. But she
frequently complained about all the old people driving on the road. I smile at
the thought of her saying this and love that Nana never saw herself as old. She drove until she was 91 and dearly missed her car for the rest of her life.
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Nana with her 2002 Chevy Cavalier |
Nana loved getting ready for bed early. As soon as she
saw her local 6 o’clock news and watched some of NBC Nightly News with Lester
Holt, she headed to her bedroom to change into her nightgown. She had a
schedule to keep. She had to be back in her comfy blue chair by 7pm to watch
Wheel of Fortune.
The lavender nightgown brings one of my fondest
memories of Nana. During my monthly visits, she allowed me to help her put it on her. Nana had a bad right shoulder and it was painful for her to lift
that arm into the sleeve. I sat beside her at the edge of her bed and helped
her so she didn’t have to hurt. Then I’d lightly
put my arm around her and kiss her delicate soft cheek. That memory brings me
to tears.
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Nana in her beautiful lavender nightgown |
Not just on Nana’s birthday, but every day, I remember her and memories of her make me smile. Yes, tears come sometimes too, but now I usually smile first.
Happy Heavenly Birthday Nana.
February 17th marks three years since
Sharon left us to become an Angel in Heaven. I’m sure Nana was there to greet
her. The only blessing for me on that day was Nana had gone to Heaven first.
For Nana, losing one of her girls would’ve broken her heart. Nana loved her two
boys, but there was always a special connection between Nana and Sharon and me.
During the 1970’s, before Sharon had children,
Saturdays were shopping days for Nana and Sharon and me. One of our favorite
places was going to the Nittany Mall in State College, Pennsylvania. Nana still
worked at the Montgomery Mills Factory, making barely $3 an hour. Sharon and I
both had full time jobs. But if there was a coat I wanted and I didn’t have the
money, it was Nana who helped me pay for it. If Sharon saw a sweater out of her
budget, Nana stepped in so she could have it. Even with her low income, Nana
was frugal and always made sure she had money to shop with us. Although Nana
bought some things for herself, I remember her greatest joy was being the one
to make sure we could have what we wanted.
While we were growing up, Nana wasn’t able to give us
extras. Sharon and I got a lot of our clothes as donations from well-to-do
relatives of my Aunt Elizabeth, Nana’s sister. Opening up the big black garbage
bag of hand-me-downs with dresses and blouses and skirts was like a shopping
spree. Nana was grateful for the generosity, but it hurt her to take charity.
She was doing the best she could feeding four kids on a factory job while my
dad used his money for trips to the local bar.
When Nana got divorced and tackled life on her own,
she knew she wasn’t totally alone. Not only her girls, but her boys, supported
her through car breakdowns, house repairs and unemployment.
In 1993, Sharon and I encouraged Nana to sell her
house and move into a second floor, one bedroom apartment outside Montgomery. Nana
loved her new home, especially the cozy balcony overlooking corn fields lined
with lush trees.
In 1999, we helped Nana make a trip to Austin, Texas for
her granddaughter Shelly’s wedding. Nana was returning there for the first time
since 1943, when she lived there while Daddy was stationed with the Army at Camp
Swift. It thrilled Sharon and I to see Nana visit the places she remembered—the
address of the boarding house where she lived (which was now an office
building), the grounds of the State Capitol with all its statues, and, most of
all, the fields of Texas Blue Bonnets, her favorite flower.
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Diane and Nana and Sharon Austin Texas March 1999 |
In 2010, at age 86, Nana faced a flurry of health
problems. She had four hospitalizations and three back surgeries in one year.
Sharon and I were with her as she fought her way back to be home and
independent. While in the hospital, she was always anxious for our visits. When
we arrived, the nurses would tell us Nana kept saying, “Where are my girls?”
As Nana’s girls, Sharon and I made a pact to keep Nana
in her beloved apartment as long as possible. Between us, we coordinated her
doctor’s visits, her medications, her supplements and her meals. Nana loved to
go and we made sure she got to go out to eat as much as possible. Sharon and I
took her to Wendy’s, May’s Drive-In in Hughesville, and for her favorite fish
sandwiches at The Fence in Lewisburg. Between my visits to Pennsylvania, Sharon
and Nana often did drive-through meals. Something Sharon called car picnics.
Nana loved it.
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Nana having a car picnic 2016 |
Nana loved all three of us being together, but she
also didn’t mind when Sharon and I got some alone time as sisters. Because we
lived at a distance from each other, in-person times for Sharon and I were a
special treat for me. It might just be riding along with her to take one of her
kitties to the vet. Or sometimes we took a quick trip to the local
Tastee-Freeze for an ice cream cone. During those times, we talked constantly.
There’s something about a bond with a sister that transcends distance and time.
Even when Nana had to go into Watsontown Nursing Home
in 2018, Sharon and I made sure she always had her snacks. M&M’s, KitKats
and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We arranged for her to have her hair washed and
set each week, so she felt loved and pretty. Sharon took charge of her laundry
and visited almost every day. I called Nana every day and visited several days each
month. Nana knew ‘her girls’ were taking care of her.
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Diane and Sharon at Watsontown Nursing Home November 2019 |
When Nana went to Heaven, I remember Sharon and I
standing by her casket. I said to Sharon, “We took really good care of Nana.”
She agreed, “Yes we did.”
Because that’s what Nana’s girls did for her.
I hope now Sharon is reunited with Nana in Heaven. I
miss them both every day.
Someday Nana and her girls will all be together again, but until then, I’ll savor our special memories together.
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Sharon and Nana and Diane February 2020 The last time we were all together in person |
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Nana and Diane June 2019 |
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Nana with Texas Calendar December 2019 |
Nana was born 100 years
ago today, September 15th, 1923 in Elimsport, Pennsylvania. She was
born at home, the fourth child and third girl to Pearl and Harrison Tilburg.
Her siblings were Elizabeth, thirteen years older than Nana, Grace, eleven
years older and John, three years older. Ben was born seven years after Nana.
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Elizabeth, Grace, John, Nana and Ben |
Throughout her life, Nana
faced many tough times and reasons to sour her on life in general. But somehow
she kept a spark for living that always amazed me.
Nana’s childhood wasn’t
easy. Her mother was often ill and weak. Her father was addicted to moonshine
and abusive. A life of poverty was her reality, growing up during the Great
Depression.
Here’s a story Nana wrote
that gives a glimpse of what she experienced:
I was living by Kennedy Cross Roads
when I was five years old. One summer
day my intoxicated Dad put Mother’s head on chopping block and with an ax made
a threat that scared us. So me and my
brother ran to the neighbor’s and got help.
With my mother, we were taken to my Uncle Bert and Aunt Kathryn Buss’ to
live for the rest of the summer. By
winter we went to live in an apartment on East 3rd Street in
Williamsport with my sisters.
Later we went back to live with Dad
in a house rented from Aunt Nettie and Uncle Jim Hamilton. From there I went to Pikes Peak School for
eight years in a one room country school.
Written by Deanie Rhone, May 18th, 2011
Nana’s eight years in the
rural Pikes Peak School were among her pleasant memories. She liked to share
how she and her brother John walked to school, even during their snowy winters.
Nana’s eighth grade education
served her well. She had a sharp mind and could add a column of numbers faster
than I could put them in a calculator. Nana always had a bead on her finances and
kept a neat checkbook and reconciled her bank account every month. In her
nineties, she reluctantly allowed me to help her with her check book and bank
account but she always wanted a detailed report on her money. Nana’s income was
low but she was thrifty and also generous. She always made sure she had a
little cash in everyone’s birthday card.
***
I’m sure Nana had no idea
how her life would change when she met a handsome young man named Stanley Rhone
at Holmes’ Dance Hall just up the road from where she lived. Both nineteen,
they married on October 10, 1942. The newlyweds had little time to enjoy
married life because Stanley (my Daddy) was drafted into the Army in February
1942 to prepare to fight overseas in World War II.
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Stanley and Deanie Rhone |
When Stanley was
stationed at Camp Swift, Austin, Texas, Nana made the decision to go there to
be as close to him as possible for as long as possible.
I can picture her as a
brave nineteen year old, all alone and boarding a train to travel across the
country. But Nana tells it best:
I left Williamsport on the Pennsylvania
Railroad bound for Austin, Texas with $30 in my pocket. World War II was in full swing. I changed trains in St. Louis and boarded the
Katy lines. In the seat across from me
were two nice Southern girls. They said,
“Are y’all going plum to Tulsa?” Not
knowing Southern talk, I asked, “Does that mean all the way?” They answered, “Yes.”
The
train was slow-moving and, while gazing out the window, I saw blue
bonnets. After three days and nights, I
arrived in Austin. I got a room at a
boarding house on 1205 Nueces Street.
The landlady, whose name was Mabel Huckabee, was very nice. She later got me a job at Steck Publishing
Company. I liked Austin, Texas a lot.
Written by Deanie Rhone,
April 27, 2011
Nana’s time in Austin,
Texas in 1943 remained the highlight of her life. Although she was there
less than a year, her love of Austin lasted her lifetime. In 1999, at 75 years
old, she went back to visit for the first time since 1943. She even found 1205
Nueces Street—no longer a boarding house, it was an office building. She
visited the grounds of the Capitol where she had walked past to go to her job
at Steck Publishing.
I remember watching her
eyes light up at the familiar places and sensed her picturing her nineteen year
old self. Maybe she allowed herself to bathe in the memories when she and Stanley
were young, innocent and in love. A time before he went off to war and didn’t
resemble the man she married when he returned home. But for those moments in
Austin, she was back being an adventurous young woman with her life still ahead
of her.
Nana followed Daddy to
Rolla, Missouri in February of 1944 before he shipped out to Italy in July
1944. By this time, Nana was pregnant with her first child, Wayne, who was born
November of 1944. Daddy didn’t see Wayne until he returned in early November of
1945.
After Wayne was born in
1944, Sharon was born in 1946, I was born in 1949 and Bill in 1951. Nana
struggled in poverty even when Daddy had good work with the Pennsylvania
Railroad. Daddy came home from the war with an addiction to alcohol and a
brotherhood with his ‘drinking buddies’ that superseded his home life.
To help financially, Nana
went to work in a factory in Montgomery when I was eight years old. She worked
in a room that was stifling hot in the summer and cold in the winter. She spun
fragile thread onto small wooden balls with an overbearing supervisor screaming
at her to produce more and more each day.
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Dish of ball spinning balls from Montgomery Mills |
At home, Daddy drank away
any extra money she saved, while Nana struggled to raise and feed four kids.
Most nights, Daddy left home to drink and meet women. Nana endured this life
until Bill graduated from high school and Sharon and I convinced her to leave
after over 27 years of marriage. We promised to help her. We kept our promise
for the rest of her life.
Nana’s youthful courage resurfaced
when faced with life on her own. Like the nineteen-year-old heading to Austin,
Texas, she bravely showed us her independence. When her factory job went away,
she started a new career as Nana to Sharon’s children, first Lori and later, Jeff. Here’s
how Nana described it:
From Montgomery Mills to the
Elimsport Hills
When Montgomery Mills closed down
And moved right out of town
My ball spinning machine was taken out the door
My thirteen gross a day not made anymore
To South Carolina and they said “no way”
On to Mexico and they trashed it in a day
A factory job I could not find
To baby sit was on my mind
Then one day Sharon called me on the phone
So I became Nana to Lori at her Elimsport home
Written by: Deanie Rhone December 2010
Nana spent many happy years helping raise Lori and Jeff. She car-pooled to kindergarten and helped take care of the pets, like Thumper the bunny and Frosty the African Gray bird. She made gallons and gallons of sweet, iced tea, burned papers, did dishes and hung laundry on the clothesline. Here’s Nana’s story about Lori and the hawk:
On a day in summer hanging diapers on the line
With Lori standing by my side having a nice time
We saw a hawk flying up high
My guess was it would stay up near the sky
As time went on it came a lot lower down
And then I got worried as it headed for the ground
I picked up Lori and into the house for good
As it swooped down to the ground where we stood
By Deanie Rhone, January 2011
In 1993, Nana sold her
house on Melvina Street in Montgomery and moved into a one-bedroom balcony
apartment in Houston Ridge just outside of town. Her balcony looked down on a
corn field with the Pennsylvania mountains framing her view in the distance. It
was a perfect place for Nana’s retirement years. Her biggest loss was her own
washing machine (she never liked going to the laundry room at the apartment
complex.) But she no longer had to worry about house maintenance or a yard that
needed mowed.
Nana at Houston Ridge Apartment 2013 |
When I moved out of
Pennsylvania in 1999, Nana was angry and disappointed. But when I moved to
Virginia in 2000, she agreed to come visit. She fell in love with the Blue
Ridge Mountains and sitting on the porch of our Ruckersville home. Here’s
Nana’s story about her time in Virginia:
The
Blue Ridge Mountains
When
Diane took me from PA to Ruckersville, VA, what a great time I had! First we stopped at Cracker Barrel, then on
down to view the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Then we went up to Skyline Drive.
At the entrance I got a Golden Age Passport, good for life. The many views from there leaves a lot of
great memories.
Then
we drove on to Ruckersville, VA to Bernice Lane for a visit with Diane and
Jan. It is a nice neighborhood where I
sat on the front porch many hours and enjoyed it so much. The mailman always waved at me and then I
walked down the driveway and got the mail.
The
neighbor Billy was very friendly and he called me Mom. I watched him come and go from work and we
went across the road to his house and watched TV on his wide-screen.
I
had my special chair for a nice view out the window with Mitzi sitting on the
back of the chair. To Mitzi I was Nana
and I gave her lots of treats every day.
Nice
memories……
Written
by Deanie Rhone, June 15th, 2011
Nana at Bernice Lane, Ruckersville VA
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Nana and Mitzi 2002 |
In 2009, Nana had some
health problems. She had four hospitalizations and three surgeries to correct
discs in her back. This might have made some 80 somethings give up and sit in
their rocking chairs. But not Nana. She fought back and kept driving and going
to May’s Drive-In to eat and the Weis grocery store.
Starting in 2009, I visited Nana more often. Every month, for at least four days, I stayed with Nana and cleaned her apartment, did some laundry, and took her to appointments
and out to eat. Sharon and I coordinated her care with doctors and meds and
vitamins. We took care of Nana like we promised.
In 2015, Nana fell while hurrying to answer her door. She tripped on the leg of her kitchen table and crashed to the floor. She broke her hip, her pelvis and her ankle. She endured two surgeries, a week in the hospital followed by three months in Muncy Skilled Nursing. After a month at The Meadows Assisted Living Center, Nana returned home. She was thrilled to be home, but she was weak, and we knew she needed help. Sadly, she couldn’t drive and that broke her heart. We were fortunate to find her a helper named Cindy. At first, she came a few hours a week but her time with Nana gradually increased as Nana needed more help.
We felt blessed for Nana
to return to her beloved apartment. To read her Sun Gazette each morning, to
enjoy her game shows—The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. To
munch on her KitKats, M&M’s and Reese Peanut Butter Cups. To sit in the
apartment gazebo and hobnob with her neighbors. Again, I was in awe of Nana’s
resilience and optimism to make the best of her situation.
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Nana at the gazebo Houston Ridge |
On July 12, 2018, I had
to admit Nana to Watstontown Nursing & Rehab because, even with Cindy’s help,
she was no longer safe to live alone in her apartment. That day was one of the
hardest days of my life. Nana was not ok with it. She fought me and everyone in
the nursing home. I remember thinking, “She won’t last six months in there.”
But, as always, Nana
surprised me. I’ll admit, it was a rough start but eventually she adjusted. She
made friends with her roommate Ruth and, during my monthly visits with her, we could just enjoy being together. No apartment to clean, no appointments to
keep. I called her every day and frequently communicated with the nursing home to make
sure she was getting the best care. In addition to Sharon's many visits, Lori and Sharon, and I had Cindy visit
almost daily. She was surrounded with love and attention.
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Cindy and Nana 2019 |
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Nana and Sharon and Diane February 2020 |
Then March 2020, Covid
hit all of us. We were on our way to see Nana when I got the call from the
nursing home that we weren’t allowed to visit. I was crushed. During Covid, we
did visits with Nana in a plexiglass booth and outside a window with a
telephone. But after February 2020, I never got to give her a hug, or kiss her
cheek.
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Nana and family August 2020 |
When I got the call in
November the day after Thanksgiving that Nana had Covid, my heart sank. But I
thought of all the things Nana had survived and I was hopeful she could beat
this deadly disease. We only had a few more years for her to get to ‘triple
digits’—her 100th Birthday, like we talked about every birthday.
But it wasn’t to be. Nana
passed away at 9:45am on Sunday, December 6th, 2020, at 97 years old. I couldn’t be
with her physically. I hope she knew I was holding her in my heart. Just as
I’ve held her in my heart every day since that day. Just
as I’m holding her in my heart today on her 100th Birthday, and just
as I’ll hold her in my heart every day until we meet again.
Happy Heavenly 100th
Birthday, Nana.
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Nana at Wendy's May 2017 |
It’s hard to believe six years have passed. I notice
all the things I miss about her. Her perfectly coifed snow-white hair, her pure
skin with less wrinkles than anyone would expect of a 93 year-old lady, her
painfully crippled arthritic fingers clutching her burger, and her naturally
pink lips.
Nana and I always celebrated Mother’s Day early. Her
favorite spots to eat were Wendy’s and The Fence in Lewisburg, where we both
enjoyed the delicious fish sandwiches.
Nana liked practical gifts for Mother’s Day—M&M’s,
KitKats, Word Find Books and Sun Gazette Newspaper subscriptions. Nana used to
say, “I don’t need stuff to sit around and collect dust.”
Although it’s easy to think we’ll always have the ones
we love, I knew every day we had Nana in our lives was a
bonus. But facing my third Mother’s Day without Nana makes me miss her even more than I do every other day.
I remember the big celebrations.
Like Nana’s 75th Surprise Birthday Party (she did NOT appreciate the
surprise), or her 90th Birthday Bash with lots of family and friends
and food.
But the memories that often pop into my mind are the small things. Like the times
watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy together, having Nana read the Sun
Gazette to me, and our lunches at Wendy’s and The Fence.
Happy Mother’s Day Nana. I'll love you forever.
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Nana at The Fence 2016 |