Page 61 - WhyAsInY

WHo are tHese PeoPle? (Part 2)
Roller Derby’s primary attraction was the recurrent scene in which one skater would execute a football-style blindside block on the speed- ing jammer and thereby forcibly thrust him or her (that’s right, her) over a rail that surrounded the competitors. Its greatest female star was “Toughie” Brasuhn. Roller Derby was very much like professional wres- tling—and thus a perfect contest for grandmothers to watch. Grandma just loved Roller Derby.
My mother often told me that I was Grandma’s favorite grandchild. Grandma had six other grandchildren: Two, Elaine and, as you’ll recall, Harry, lived with her daughter Celia and Celia’s husband, as you’ll also recall, Sam Yaverbaum, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—far away, which was an outrage because, as far as my mother was concerned, she and my father were thereby left with the entire burden of taking care of Grandma. Two, Susan and Adrienne, lived with Grandma’s daughter Anna and Anna’s husband, Jerry Peltz, in Poughkeepsie, New York— also far away, yet another outrage, same reason. And two, Alan and Randy, lived with her son Albert, he who changed his surname to Reade, and Albert’s wife, Bernice (called “Bunny”), who lived in Brooklyn but were not held in the highest of esteem by my mother and, therefore, could not have lived far enough away. Anyway, Alan and Randy were obviously in no way as appealing as I was.
Grandma died when I was a college sophomore. My father, who would check in on her from time to time, was called by one of her neigh- bors. He entered her apartment and found her slumped at the dining room table. He told me that she was in the middle of a game of solitaire when she died. I couldn’t stand the idea that she had died alone, and I can’t get the image of her dying while playing solitaire out of my head. That was the first of only two times at which I saw my father cry. Accord- ing to my mother, very soon after Grandma died, Celia, Anna, and Bunny descended on Grandma’s apartment and, without involving my father or mother, took whatever they wanted of the valuables, including furniture. My mother never let my father or me forget it. If my father believed that event to be of any consequence, except insofar as it
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