Aunt Mildred

In our family if you were a close family friend, you frequently got tagged Aunt or Uncle because it was considered in poor taste for children to address their elders by their first names, and Mr. or Mrs. didn't work either. As I wrote previously, Mildred was almost family to us since she was my dad's brother's wife's aunt. Anyway, Mildred was a bit excentric and definitely an old maid. She, however, was a sweetie to all the nieces and nephews, including hangers-on like us. We always loved to have Mildred drop in because usually she was selling something interesting that we might need, like white socks.

Mildred was very hard of hearing and wore hearing aids that really didn't work very well, and so you had to shout to make yourself understood. The fact that she was the town librarian must have been interesting due to all the shouting necessary to make her understand what book you wanted to check out. So much for quiet in the library.

One Christmas we passed Mildred in her car which was smoking and making a terrible racket as we both were on our way to Aunt Maud's house for the family Christmas. Dad stopped and yelled at Mildred, "Are you and your car OK?" "We are fine and will see you there," he got back. So as we went on, Dad observed, "Mildred's car has thrown a rod." Fortunately, Aunt Maud did not live too far away, and Mildred came with billowing smoke about 20 minutes after we arrived. Dad and his brother Harry(who had his own garage for car repairs) went out and determined that Mildred's car had indeed thrown a rod and might never go again.

When Mildred was a young woman she contacted breast cancer and had a double mastectomy many years before this was a common medical practice. She survived, which was a miracle in those days, and indeed lived to be quite an old lady. When relatives went in to her house to clean it out, they found it piled high with newspapers and magazines that she had saved for years. After all, a good librarian NEVER throws anything away. She was a character but much loved by her extended family. My brother looks after her family plot in Brown Cemetary to this day.