Myrtle was a big fan of the Chicago Cubs. Not someone who collected memorabilia, simply someone who loved to follow the game, mostly on the radio. The Cubs were always Number One to Myrtle. So we are all grateful that she lived beyond the day the Cubs won The World Series.
She had birth "defects" and her aunts fed her by soaking milk in a cloth and dripping the milk into her mouth, because she was not able to suckle. They were told that she would not live past her teenage years. She lived 90 years and nearly 2 months!
Myrtle was my oldest cousin. She was the oldest of our generation of the family, and I am the youngest. That's a big thing,... she was more than 30 years old than I. I have memories of Myrtle way back to when I was a toddler.... I did not know exactly who she was at that tender age, but I knew she was family, and she was the lady with the camera. That's right, that is how I identified her before I started to remember people's names and learn how I was related to them.
One day I was left in the charge of some neighbors, who let us kids play on the swingset at my house, which was visible from their back yard. Anyway, I guess I was about 5 years old, and some people came into our yard to visit my parents. They did not know that my parents were not home, so they talked to us kids. They called out to me, "Susan, come here, where is your mom?" I looked at them and tried to think of who they were... at first I did not recognize them, but then I saw Myrtle's camera! It was a box camera, the kind that the photographer had to look down into to focus the shot.
Anyway, as soon as I saw the camera in her hands I knew who she was. "You are Myrtle." I said. I still did not recognize the other people, but I knew then that it was okay for me to talk to them. (The others were Myrtle's sister, my cousin Verna, and Verna's children Gary and Karen.) Gosh I can picture them standing there, between the back porch and the rock garden of the house at Fox Lake.
Later, when I was about 12 years old we had a little dog, and Myrtle would keep the terrier when we went on vacation. So I got to know Myrtle better, because I wanted to really know who was taking care of my beloved little terrier.
During my 14th summer Myrtle spent a couple of weeks traveling with us. We went to The Wisconsin Dells together, and Hannibal, Missouri, Silver Dollar City, and Dogpatch. Then we went to visit Myrtle's sister, Loretta and her husband Erv, in Heber Springs, Arkansas. So we really got to know each other, riding around the middle of the country in a Ford Maverick automobile.
Now, Myrtle never married, but she took care of everyone's kids, babysat for probably hundreds of people, and for 50 years hosted a Christmas party for her nieces and nephews, and later for a whole passel of folks -mostly relatives.
A little over 2 years ago Myrtle had a health scare, and after that she lived in a nursing home. All I can say here, is that Myrtle wanted to go to God. She was waiting. Finally God was ready for her. She was not afraid, she was ready after 90 years of living. This was a blessing. We will all miss her greatly, and I hope that we can all get together once a year in her honor. This was a heartbreak and a blessing. Amen.
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| Hosting her Christmas party 12/18/2011. |
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