March 2003

I was invited to Cousin Pauline Ost 90th birthday party last Sunday at the nursing home. Met Pauline's son Morris & wife Lorraine and Roger's [Pauline's other son] 5 of 6 kids. Roger passed a few years ago from a heart attack. Morris & Lorraine wanted to have a open house but Pauline didn't feel comfortable with it, she is loosing ground. She wanted it limited only to her kids, grandkids, great grandkids & spouses, but I got invited. I was a little reluctant to go, but now am very glad I went. Meeting new cousins is so great. Also while we were eating when we were about done with the meal, I decided to recite from memory some of the things I wrote about from Pauline notebook that pertained to Pauline growing up. This was much appreciated by Pauline's Grandkids, new stories they never heard of. One of Roger's girls thanked me later with tears in her eyes. I didn't realize that it would move them that much and that was very rewarding to me.

One story I didn't put in Rebecca Memories because it was about Pauline rather than Rebecca that I recited was:

When Pauline was a little girl, they had a large family. When they had chicken for dinner, by the time the plate was passed to her all that was left was the liver, heart and the chicken head. They would clean the head, remove the eyes and fry it with the rest of the chicken. Pauline ate the skin and the little pocket of meat around the cheeks and after dinner would take the head out to the front door on the cement steps. Here she would crack open the head and eat the brain. Pauline then piped up, "That's why I am so smart". Well everyone was laughing and groaning at the same time.

The other story about her going barefoot all summer long except to church made a impression on Pauline's great grand daughters. “Some times when our shoes got to tight, we only got 1 pair of shoes each year, we went barefoot to church too. But we washed our feet, and we went with clean feet to church”.