Hallway to kitchen
I remember this hallway, from the dining room to the kitchen, as being longer than it really is. The first room on the left is the bathroom, litle changed since I last visited in 1969. The next room is where my grandmother's sister, my great aunt Essie slept. I may have entered the room once, if ever, in all the years I visited Girouard, and I remember her giving me some money as a present, only once, it was a ten cent piece, a dime. Even then that wasn't much. I received a birthday card from her, addressed to Master Stephen Morrissey, the formal way of addressing a letter to an underage person. Essie was deaf and wore a hearing aid, she also had respiratory problems, at least I assume she did as she wore a mustard pack on her chest when she was ill. She moved to Girouard, I guess, when her father moved there in the late 1930s. In a way, she must have been quite a character in her own way or I wouldn't remember her as well as I do. The gesture of "zipping" up her lips and throwing away an imaginary key, indicating that she wouldn't tell something, and drinking her tea by pouring it in a suacer and sipping it, or drinking tea from a cup with her little finger protruding away from the cup, all were affectations that are memorable to this day. I don't remember her ever visiting or staying at my grandmothers's St. Eustache country cottage, I guess living at Girouard was as far as my grandmother was willing to go, as well as the country cottage was fairly small and there was no room for her. She worked at Tooke's factory most of her life, until they pensioned her off in the mid-1950s, they had been "carrying her" for many years they said. No pension, no severance pay, which is why in the old days being old without a pension and without family to support you meant poverty for many old people. I remember around 1968 seeing her sitting outside the former Steinberg's Grocery Store, corner of Melrose and Sherbrooke, next to the big post office, as I passed by on my way home on a city bus. I guess that's what she did with her days, go for a walk and sit in a public place. Essie died while still living at Girouard. God bless her.
I remember this hallway, from the dining room to the kitchen, as being longer than it really is. The first room on the left is the bathroom, litle changed since I last visited in 1969. The next room is where my grandmother's sister, my great aunt Essie slept. I may have entered the room once, if ever, in all the years I visited Girouard, and I remember her giving me some money as a present, only once, it was a ten cent piece, a dime. Even then that wasn't much. I received a birthday card from her, addressed to Master Stephen Morrissey, the formal way of addressing a letter to an underage person. Essie was deaf and wore a hearing aid, she also had respiratory problems, at least I assume she did as she wore a mustard pack on her chest when she was ill. She moved to Girouard, I guess, when her father moved there in the late 1930s. In a way, she must have been quite a character in her own way or I wouldn't remember her as well as I do. The gesture of "zipping" up her lips and throwing away an imaginary key, indicating that she wouldn't tell something, and drinking her tea by pouring it in a suacer and sipping it, or drinking tea from a cup with her little finger protruding away from the cup, all were affectations that are memorable to this day. I don't remember her ever visiting or staying at my grandmothers's St. Eustache country cottage, I guess living at Girouard was as far as my grandmother was willing to go, as well as the country cottage was fairly small and there was no room for her. She worked at Tooke's factory most of her life, until they pensioned her off in the mid-1950s, they had been "carrying her" for many years they said. No pension, no severance pay, which is why in the old days being old without a pension and without family to support you meant poverty for many old people. I remember around 1968 seeing her sitting outside the former Steinberg's Grocery Store, corner of Melrose and Sherbrooke, next to the big post office, as I passed by on my way home on a city bus. I guess that's what she did with her days, go for a walk and sit in a public place. Essie died while still living at Girouard. God bless her. 
1 comment:
I agree Stephen-God bless her. She sounds like a very interesting person! Thanks for sharing so much of your life and memories here. I hope you are doing great and it isn't getting too cold up north already-what i would give to be in the snow just one more time!
Best to you!
Devin
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