AUNT PEARL – ILLNESS AND PASSING

Change can be so subtle that in the midst of it we barely notice the effect on our lives. As I reviewed the 1950s, I thought to myself, “Wow! Our family was changing rapidly.”

This photo of an extended family reunion was taken in 1950.  Those of my grandparents’ generation, including Al and Pearl Sanders, are the senior citizens of the group. My parents are middle-aged, and another photo (not shown) includes Mother’s teen-aged children. My dad is holding me, not yet a year old. In the next ten years, many of the older generation would leave us, sometimes quite unexpectedly. It had to be difficult times for my parents. By the time 1960 rolled around, Grandpa Portfors was about the only elder left.

But other changes took place as well. Those teen-agers graduated from high school and college, married, and began to establish their families. By 1960, my parents had five grandchildren. It was a decade filled with ceremonies – graduations, weddings, funerals.

But I digress. This is a story about Aunt Pearl. The photos show that she was there at the reunion in 1950, but she died in Seattle on November 5, 1952, just after her 60^th birthday. Her brief obituary just says that she passed after a year’s illness. Her death certificate indicates heart and kidney disease. She was buried at the Gilbert Cemetery not far from the homeplace where she grew up.

This picture of Ina and her remaining five children was taken in 1953. I was there, and I remember my dad putting cushions on a stool so that Ina would be comfortable. My almost 4-year-old self didn’t think it looked like a place Grandma Ina would sit, and to this day, I doubt she was comfortable.

Of course, Uncle Albert returned to his life in Seattle. A year later, he married Blanche Wrigley of Stettler. Who could blame him, after all? He might live another 20 years, and he didn’t want to be alone, but his remarriage was a blow to the family nevertheless. “Honey, that’s a man for you,” I can hear my mother-in-law saying in her deep southern drawl.

But Blanche was not a fit with the family, and when Al brought her to the family circle, probably for one of the many funerals, she was graciously if not warmly received. There was an edge to Blanche, and according to my mother, she said things that ought not to be said. For instance, she wondered aloud who might be the next to go. Well, my young mind wondered the same thing, but Mother said such things ought not to be said, and I wisely kept my thoughts to myself.

Unfortunately, the next to go was Uncle Al. He left suddenly on March 29, 1957, the result of a heart attack. I don’t remember anything about it, but records show that he died just prior to Grandma Ina, who passed April 6, 1957. He was buried next to Aunt Pearl at the Gilbert Cemetery, and their son Stanley, who died in 1996, is buried there, too. KW

Photo identification:

1) From left: My dad, Vance Dobson, holding me (Kathy); Aunt Pearl peeks around Daddy's shoulder, and my mother, Dorothy, is next; Grandpa Charlie Portfors in front, and the man behind in the white hat is Uncle Roy German; Aunt Muriel Sanders German; Aunt Bessie Sanders Wood; Grandma Nina Sanders Portfors; and Dona Marie German.

2) Aunt Pearl; Dorothy, my mother, holding me; Aunt Bessie; Grandma Nina Portfors; and Aunt Muriel.

3) Ina Dobson, center, surrounded by her children, taken the summer after Aunt Pearl's passing. From left: Myrtle, Earle, Vance, Ethel, and Shirley.