Category Archives: People

Old Writing: Part 10::Untitled

People, Pets, Writing,

I wrote this October 1966. I am not sure what grade I was in. Probably fourth.

I am a ten-year-old girl. My name is Dona Patrick. I live at 240 Heine Street, Elgin, Illinois. My brother’s name is Kevin. He is three years old. My mother’s name is Pat, but I call her Mom. My father’s name is Al but I call him Dad. I don’t know if I am pretty, but my dad says so.

When I got my cat, it was 5 months old. When I got my dog, he was eight months old. I was ten when my cat was born. I was six or seven when my brother was born. My aunt was married and I was the junior bridesmaid. My mom was a bridesmaid. So was my aunt. The bride’s girlfriend was the maid-of-honor. My brother was the ring bearer. Now I have a new uncle and I might have a new cousin. I hope it’s a girl. But if it is a boy, it’s his business.

My aunt and uncle never had kids.

Gone

Death, People

Note that I started writing this less than a week after she died. I’ve not been able to return to it. Until now.

In my first true and vivid memory of her, we sat across from each other in a booth at a drugstore, probably Walgreens in Elgin. It must have been February because her birthday was close. She confided in me that she would soon no longer be a teenager and it made her sad. I must have been 9 if she was turning 20. I don’t recall my reaction. Maybe I was sad too.

There are earlier memories, but only snippets: hearing the raccoons in the trash cans outside the cabin in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin and being worried it was bears; being concerned about her when she had her tonsils removed; going to see the bears at the dump in Arbor Vitae.

The real memories came later. Being junior bridesmaid at her wedding; visiting her and Uncle Jack at their homes: Walnut Avenue and Marguerite Street in Elgin, Lor Ann Drive in South Elgin and finally Ironwood Bluff Road in Fulton, Mississippi.

I always found time to visit with her when I went back to Elgin. Usually, we spent a day shopping, having lunch, visiting. Once or twice we even stayed with her and Uncle Jack, probably because our regular sleeping quarters were full of people.

She visited me after we moved out east at least twice. Once was for an inaugural ball when she flew out with my mom and my brother. The other time(s) was(were) just to play tourist.

My last memories of being with her are full of birds, insects, laughter, cats, reminiscing, and a battlefield.

When Uncle Jack called to tell me she’d died just after Christmas in 2016 it was as if someone had punched me in my stomach. We were on our way back from the beach. I cried in front of my children — something I’d not done before. I had questions: How could that have happened? (answer: diabetes) Why didn’t anyone tell me that she’d been so ill? (she didn’t want you to know). When is the funeral? (there won’t be one).

I finally wrote my uncle, her husband, a letter. He called me last night and we talked about a lot of things, but not about how much we both missed her. That would have hurt too much. Despite having lost other aunts and uncles, my beloved grandparents, and both my parents, this is the loss that I will never get over.

Aunt Ginny — you are missed.

Grandma Patrick and the circus people

People, ,

I’ve written about my Grandma Patrick’s place of birth before, but I only today learned about the owners of the inn during the time her parents worked there.

Rold Gammel Kro is a 3-star inn in the north of Denmark’s Jutland area. It is one of the oldest inns in Denmark, according to a website I happened upon today and a letter from my father’s cousin suggests the business could have been started as far back as the 1100s.

What I found so interesting is that, also according to the geocaching website in the paragraph above, a circus troupe stopped by the inn one year and asked for accommodations, but the owner would not let them stay, so the circus owner, Heinrich Miehe, went around and paid the debts of the inn’s owner and ended up owning the Rold Kro Inn the next year. It was Heinrich Miehe that my great-grandfather,  Christ Nielsen, worked for. Christ and his wife, Anne Marie were the innkeepers while the Miehes were on the road with their circus. Heinrich decided to stay and look after the inn in 1902. I wonder if that is why my grandma’s family decided to emigrate to the US. Or maybe he decided to take over the innkeeping duties because his employees were leaving.

Apparently, there is a circus museum near the inn that was part of the Miehe Circus winter training site.

According to the letter mentioned above, my grandmother’s sister, Antonie, mentioned the Miehe Circus. I’d never heard about until today. I wonder if Grandma Patrick told me about it and I just don’t remember.

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