This is the most lovely photo I’ve ever seen of my Great-Aunt Mary. She is 34 years old here and in the prime of her life. This quiet, gentle woman left a gift which made a great impact on me as a person. Because of Mary’s gift, I found strength to fight through a fear which opened up the world to me.

Mary was quite the cosmopolitan woman of her time.  She took the train from Haverstraw to Manhattan to work at the Underwood Typewriter Company headquarters in the Bowery.  I get a kick seeing her with the mink around her neck. She definitely could accessorize. Although she passed on when I was just 14, I think of Aunt Mary often. Not because of material items, yet I still have two of the most luxurious French-made silk scarves from her after 46 years.

This hardworking woman had a savings account for just me and another savings account for my brother. I never knew of her thoughtfulness or generosity until after she was gone. We were a small family and I was one of her two nieces, my mother being her other niece. Mary and her monetary gift is the reason I first went to Europe at the age of 15 for a summer. I had never been on an airplane or traveled alone before this. Up to this point, I was pretty much a mamma’s girl and was off and on having panic attacks about leaving home. I had a close friend, Vera, who had moved to Scotland the previous year. We wrote weekly letters to each other and she invited me to spend the summer with her.

Off I went for the summer. My confidence blossomed and my wanderlust grew. I still had those nasty panic attacks, but deep down I knew I could somehow fight the fear for things I truly wanted. Funny coincidence that my favorite scarf from her has the zodiac featuring the Lion!

Addendum: My Great Aunt Mary was the oldest of three sisters of my grandfather. Mary was born November 14,1898 and was the second child to Polish immigrants, Joseph and Rosalia K.-S. This photo was taken in 1932 in front of her home on Van Houten Street in the village of Haverstraw. Mary never married so she was born and died of a stroke in this house. Her older brother Lawrence was a Veteran of WWI and returned from Europe with “Shell-Shock” and he never married or worked. Mary took care of her aging mother and older brother Lawrence who was stricken with Parkinson’s disease. These three passed within a decade of each other with Rosalia in 1963 at age 91, Lawrence in 1967 at age 71and Mary in 1971 at age 73. They are all buried together in Mt. Repose Cemetery in Haverstraw.