Page 117 - From the Outhouse 4 -21

117 | P A T R I C I A R A E M E R R I T T W H A T L E Y

Aunt Vera had many strange ways. She would turn her what-nots (as we called them) upside down. What-nots were small ceramic
objects depicting people, places, or things that people displayed on tables in their living room. If you turned the what-nots right-side

up, Aunt Vera would know you had bothered them, and that was a no-no. Another odd thing about her was that she kept her money

in the refrigerator inside a pitcher. How strange is that?

Overall, my Aunt Vera was a real classy character! You had to love her. She always welcomed us with open arms as many times as we

wanted to visit. She dearly loved my grandmother, Daisy, who was the oldest of the three sisters. Their other sister, Aunt Frances,

lived in Vallejo, California. I didn’t meet her and her husband until I was grown and married. I got to visit her and Uncle Arthur when
I went to Oakland, California, to sing at my classmate’s daughter’s wedding. This was the same friend that told me I was blessed that

I didn’t go to New York farms with the migrant workers to pick vegetables.

Aunt Frances and Uncle Arthur were fun-loving people with a very active lifestyle. They were on a bowling team while in their 70s

and 80s. He was a barber, and she played piano for their church plus taught piano in her home. They were extremely serious about
taking vitamins. In fact, they kept a floor cabinet full of vitamins. Before their demise in 1972, I flew my grandmother Daisy (Aunt

Frances’ sister) from Sanford to Vallejo, California. This trip was to soothe my grandmother and give her an enjoyable time with her
sister after the tragic death of her daughter, my mother. It had been a very long time since they had been together, and I thought this

trip would have been delightful for both of them.

It was wonderful for about two weeks. The stay was to be a month or longer, but my grandmother stayed in bed about a week, my

Aunt Frances reported. She was so distraught that she had no desire to live, and she got very sick. With this change of conditions, I

sent for her and had an ambulance meet us at the airport so she could be immediately transported to the hospital. Within a week, my
grandmother made her transition to Heaven.

During the summers, when I didn’t go to Corona, Long Island or Montclair, New Jersey, I would visit Jacksonville, Florida as stated