Separation and Transformation

By Sue E. Bernotas. Pennsylvania, USA

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My grandmother Flora was one of five children born to Cyrus, a carpenter, and Sarah Melinda in 1899. She met Robert Lee at a church social. She was tall at the age of 13 and he asked her father if he could marry her. “Absolutely not — wait until she’s 16.” And so it was.

It was a simple ceremony. Flora was medium-framed, the corners of her thin lips turned up. Her small brown eyes danced above her fragile features. Robert was five years older than her, not a tall man — stocky with full lips and nose and large blue eyes. Working in the coal mines gave them a financial advantage and they started their life together. She had five children like her mother. Grandmother, however, worried daily that the love of her life might not return from his shift.

When he was offered a job in a small town in Pennsylvania by way of his grown sons at the Hazel Atlas glass factory, he took it for better pay, benefits, and safety issues.

Shuffling up the slight hill of steps, Robert walked towards the kitchen at the back of the house where the smell and crackle of frying meat drew him in. He leaned in. “No,” grandmother said, “you go get cleaned up while I prepare dinner. Then you can get your kiss.”

Upstairs, he removed his dirty blue striped coveralls while drawing his bath, preparing for their evening meal. Flora was peeling the potatoes while the chicken was frying. Looking up to the clock above the window to see how much time she needed to prepare the green beans she picked from the back yard garden and complete the potatoes before she would be calling Robert for dinner. Her  hanging pot above the sink and the large plant with spike leaves sitting in the corner by the door was comforting to her, reminiscent of her kitchen in Grafton.

She called Robert. No answer. She called again. No answer. Up the stairs she went frantically to find him laying on their bed with a peaceful calm on his face, eyes open but not moving as she approached him, the sheet pulled up, still smooth, with one hand on his chest. The large spikes of the kitchen plant served as a conduit to magnify grandmother’s bloodcurdling screams and sobs all over the neighborhood.

In those days, the casket was in their small living room for three days. The preacher, family, friends, and neighbors came and went all day bringing food, kneeling and praying for his soul and grandmother’s. At the gravesite, crying and sobbing never stopped. As the casket was lowered it took her grown sons to hold her back from jumping in the gravesite to join Robert.

Years later, grandmother was living with our family and after losing her independence she became a trailblazer for her time. Securing a job in retail that wasn’t even advertised because of her passionate pleas to the management in the millinery department at the local JCPenney. Improving their sales and receiving bonuses, she worked there until retirement.

Later, she made her first plane flight to Florida with my Father’s mother Alice. While sipping lemonade on the patio a gentleman approached from the parking lot. “Flora, this is Addie. I’ve known him for years.”

When he left after the conversation, Alice said, “I never paid him any mind.” However, it was obvious Addie directed his comments to Flora and was smitten by her, stopping to talk daily and elicit giggles and grins from her. When Flora returned home to Pennsylvania, Addie requested to see her. His daughter lived there and they had been talking daily about how much they enjoyed each other’s company. While in Pennsylvania, Addie courted her devotedly.

“Flora, will you marry me?”

“Yes!”

The corners of her mouth turned up as a giggle left her lips and her eyes twinkled. They went to a drive in on their honeymoon much to the amusement of family. They returned to his home in Florida and made several trips back and forth. Finally, he sold his Florida home and bought one across the street from ours to make her happy. He was ten years older than her and when he passed, the last five years of her life — until she was 87 — she found out that true love could happen even after the loss of her childhood sweetheart.