Aunt Dorothy spent time in the US Navy as a hospital corpsman in both the Second World War and again during the Korean War, where she acquired a taste for strong drink, which haunted her for many years. Her strong will and the desire to be free from booze led her to take the drug Anabuse as treatment. She faithfully took the drug every morning, and eventually conquered the habit. She was a chain smoker though and succumbed to her habit shortly after her eighty-second birthday when her heart finally gave out. I can still remember the last time Sandy and I visited her just weeks before she died and what she said with a smile on her face.
“The doctor told me that it would be harder on me now if I quite.”
She then invited us outside so as not to annoy us with the smoke and lit up another Camel.
It was not until after the last of her fourth or fifth (lost count) husbands that I really got to know her. Her last husband Willie, who I met briefly, was a nice enough fellow but was young enough to be her son. The relationship only lasted a few years as Willie took off for the hills of Tennessee and as far as I know was not heard from again.
We used to stop to visit Aunt Dorothy whenever we could. I remember the time on our way back from Disneyland when we pulled into the old farmhouse at the Curtain-Lorrane Junction where she happened to be living. It was a damp and rainy evening when we arrived at the ancient farmhouse that Aunt Dorothy rented with an assortment of animals and Charlie her pet pig, which she eventually ate.
South central Oregon is normally fairly dry but that evening the light rain had left the yard somewhat muddy. Rather then have us put the tent trailer up in the rain and mud she invited us to sleep in her bed.
I said, “Don’t bother Aunt Dorothy we don’t want to put you out, by making you have to change your sheets.”
And she responded, “No bother, I wasn’t going to change them anyway, they have only been on two weeks.”
I realized the offer was to good to be true when I laid back the covers to climb in and noticed all of the debris between the sheets
Here I was on my knees with the covers pulled back, frantically brushing away at the sheets to clear the bed of as much of the debris as possible, while poor Sandy, who couldn’t believe her eyes, watched from her chair in the living room. All she was thinking was it’s a good think that Aunt Dorothy couldn’t see what I was doing from where she was sitting.
Just a few months before she passed away, Aunt Dorothy came up to visit some of the family at my son Bob’s place in Walla Walla. This normally would not have been a heroic event but in view of her failing health it put quite a strain on her. She was determined to make the trip before she died and had taken care of the minutest details in case the inevitable should happen while she was there. On arriving from her arduous plane trip she explained to Bob my son, how he was not to worry as she had taken care of everything. That is to say, she had contacted the appropriate authorities, coroner etc. in case she didn’t make it back home from his place.
She informed him that she never slept in late and if she did he was to check immediately as her time had probably come. Wouldn’t you know it, that first morning she slept well beyond her usual time, so needless to say, they were terrified thinking that Aunty Dorothy had ended her days in Chloe’s bed. They knocked frantically on her door and all breathed a sigh of relief when she finally answered the knock by sticking her disheveled head out with a most questioning look on her face. When she finally realized what the concern was about everyone had a good laugh, especially Aunt Dorothy.
“The doctor told me that it would be harder on me now if I quite.”
She then invited us outside so as not to annoy us with the smoke and lit up another Camel.
It was not until after the last of her fourth or fifth (lost count) husbands that I really got to know her. Her last husband Willie, who I met briefly, was a nice enough fellow but was young enough to be her son. The relationship only lasted a few years as Willie took off for the hills of Tennessee and as far as I know was not heard from again.
We used to stop to visit Aunt Dorothy whenever we could. I remember the time on our way back from Disneyland when we pulled into the old farmhouse at the Curtain-Lorrane Junction where she happened to be living. It was a damp and rainy evening when we arrived at the ancient farmhouse that Aunt Dorothy rented with an assortment of animals and Charlie her pet pig, which she eventually ate.
South central Oregon is normally fairly dry but that evening the light rain had left the yard somewhat muddy. Rather then have us put the tent trailer up in the rain and mud she invited us to sleep in her bed.
I said, “Don’t bother Aunt Dorothy we don’t want to put you out, by making you have to change your sheets.”
And she responded, “No bother, I wasn’t going to change them anyway, they have only been on two weeks.”
I realized the offer was to good to be true when I laid back the covers to climb in and noticed all of the debris between the sheets
Here I was on my knees with the covers pulled back, frantically brushing away at the sheets to clear the bed of as much of the debris as possible, while poor Sandy, who couldn’t believe her eyes, watched from her chair in the living room. All she was thinking was it’s a good think that Aunt Dorothy couldn’t see what I was doing from where she was sitting.
Just a few months before she passed away, Aunt Dorothy came up to visit some of the family at my son Bob’s place in Walla Walla. This normally would not have been a heroic event but in view of her failing health it put quite a strain on her. She was determined to make the trip before she died and had taken care of the minutest details in case the inevitable should happen while she was there. On arriving from her arduous plane trip she explained to Bob my son, how he was not to worry as she had taken care of everything. That is to say, she had contacted the appropriate authorities, coroner etc. in case she didn’t make it back home from his place.
She informed him that she never slept in late and if she did he was to check immediately as her time had probably come. Wouldn’t you know it, that first morning she slept well beyond her usual time, so needless to say, they were terrified thinking that Aunty Dorothy had ended her days in Chloe’s bed. They knocked frantically on her door and all breathed a sigh of relief when she finally answered the knock by sticking her disheveled head out with a most questioning look on her face. When she finally realized what the concern was about everyone had a good laugh, especially Aunt Dorothy.
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