50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

By Dee Deuth, CSA
Weerts Funeral Home

NANCY  

When I was a young child in the 40s, we lived in a neighborhood of mature individuals with children in high school.  The only younger child in the neighborhood, other than myself, was Nancy.  She lived across the street with her grandparents and some of her aunts.

Nancy and I developed a close friendship and played together almost every day.  I loved going to her house to play, because her aunts and uncles had made a dollhouse for her out of discarded wooden fruit crates. This creation had six rooms which consisted of a kitchen, dining room and living room on the lower level and two bedrooms with a bathroom in between them on the second floor.  It would have been the envy of any little girl in the 40s. The adults had wallpapered each room individually with curtains at the windows and appropriate flooring. She had furniture for each room that completely finished the grand look. We’d spend an entire afternoon rearranging furniture and creating new looks in each room. HGTV would have contracted us for a show if they had been broadcasting at that time.

If we played at my home, we usually played “school” with me being the “bossy” teacher and Nancy the obedient student. When she was tired of hearing me “teach” or give directions, she’d quietly put on her coat and say, “I have to go home now.”  She had a sweet, quiet spirit and never argued or sought her own way.

Several of her aunts were beauticians and they would roll her hair on rags and twirl them around to make ringlets. She was always groomed to perfection. Me not so much!

On a July morning in 1947, her aunt stopped over at our home and related to my Mom that Nancy had died in the night.  What a shock! Mom explained to me that Nancy had gone to bed, and while sleeping she had died and gone to heaven.  Because Nancy and I enjoyed smelling the roses that grew along the side of our home, I requested that we pick some and take over to the family.

My mother took me to the funeral home on the day of the visitation before other guests arrived. There was Nancy in a little white casket, her hair in ringlets and placed in a white handkerchief in her hands were the red roses I had given. She was BEAUTIFUL.

Her family and I struggled after this major loss in our lives. Her aunts decided to attempt the ringlet operation on my stubborn, fly-away, limp hair… Only Once! They never offered again!  One of them took me to the city swimming pool one afternoon, (the first time I had been to the pool.)

The lasting memorial they gave to me was the dollhouse and furniture, which I still have and treasure. Many dollhouses have been manufactured since then, but it is the most special house ever built.

Nancy taught me many things in her short seven years of life.  Things such as to be content with what I have; to be polite and gentle in my relationships, not always seeking to have my own way; to attempt to find the best in others; to realize that it is the little things in life that create differences between people and that in the big things of life we are as one. “THANK YOU, NANCY. And, I’m taking good care of the dollhouse furniture! And by the way, my hair is still unruly!”

I hope you enjoy your summer and can find the time to reminisce about some life-changing experiences.
Happy Summer and……THANK YOU for reading 50+ Lifestyles Magazine.