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 and Uncle Bert 1929
Nana school picture
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 in Austin Texas 1943
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.
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| 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
 |
| 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.
 |
| 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.
Nana and Diane June 2019
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