102 years of life was celebrated this weekend. When my auntie was born in 1920 the world was a very different place. Woodrow Wilson was President of the US. The Great War had ended but Congress was still debating the Treaty of Versailles. The Roaring Twenties was born. The nation was no longer at war and life could return to normal. Hemlines when up, women cut their long hair for bobs and the Charleston was danced in nightclubs. The common bandaid was not yet invented (that happened in late 1920 or 1921). While the airplane had been invented, there were no commercial flights.
During my aunt's lifetime, she witnessed the first radio station, the cross-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh, the Great Depression, prohibition was enacted then rescinded several years later, the Second World War, fireside chats by the President, nuclear bombs, television, commercial air flights, transistor radios, color television, polio vaccines, heart transplants, big main frame to tiny laptop computers, telephones to cell phones... ... ... the list goes on. She was witness to Sputnik and man's first walk on the moon. During her 102 years of life, she saw things that were not imaginable when she was born...things like barcodes, flat screen televisions, DVRs, CDs, video cams on every street corner, and instant news. She saw the rise and fall of communism; the building and destruction of "the Wall." She saw Queen Elizabeth's coronation on television and she saw her memorials 70 years later when the Queen passed away. (Elizabeth was born in 1927). She experienced the "hot" wars, the "cold" war, and everything in between. She saw Ford tri-motor airplanes and 777s fly in the skies.
During her amazing life, she made friends everywhere she went. She was a social person who loved to entertain. She was a great cook too. I remember going to her house when she had dinner for 50...both of her kitchens (upstairs and down) in her tiny row house were filled with food to feed an army and she always pulled it off with grace and charm. Her friends and family helped her, but she did it all. She never owned a car. She knew the bus schedule like the back of her hand. She went everywhere by foot or bus. At 98 she was still walking to the senior center to have lunch or play bingo with her friends. She gave the best directions too...she could tell you the best way to go. When she had friends who drove, she loved to go for rides, but she never wanted to drive herself. One time when she was in her 90s, she met our ship, and we spent a fun day in her city...she rode the bus to the port to meet us, walked our legs off on the best tour of the wharf ever. At the end of the day we were tired and ready to go back onboard the ship and she had still had to walk back home. She was a ball of energy all the time.
She was a single mom long before that term was invented. She was strong and independent, possibly because her father passed away when she was 14, and she had to be responsible for a younger sister. She raised her son alone, and was proud that he was a career submariner in the Navy. She was my auntie and my godmother. I love her dearly and I miss her so much. Good bye Auntie Ruthie...you may be gone but you are never forgotten.
