Aunt Sonia

Lately this blog has veered off course, it's become a sort of pop culture commentary as I review restaurants and movies, salute celebrities, etc.

I realized a few minutes ago that today would have been my Aunt Sonia's birthday. My father's older sister, she died of breast cancer in 1974.

She was the only one of my father's sisters who did not marry or have children. I think it had a lot to do with polio -- the disease left her with a noticeable limp. She walked with a cane because if that limp. I never discussed it with her, but it was sort of understood that the limp -- or rather, how she felt about her limp -- held her back.

Instead, she made a career out of being the family historian, and the family gossip. Knew and loved all of her nieces and nephews.

She lived with us when I was a little girl. I can remember her going off to work -- she worked for a seltzer company in Brooklyn. And she watched tv on a portable black and white set in her bedroom. I remember seeing "Bewitched", and being scared by the Perry Mason theme.

I remember going to the 1964 World's Fair, and how we got to use a special entrance into "It's a Small World" so that the lady with the cane could board the boat without difficulty.

And then she had an accident. Stepped in a pothole, fell and broker her ankle. The ankle that was already weak from polio. After that she needed to balance with a walker, not a cane. I suspect ... Well, she was considerably overweight, and probably did not get physical therapy, and I'm sure fear had something to do with it, but I suspect that ankle could have been rehabbed. Her walker, though, was a part time jungle gym for my dolls.

She bought our first color TV with the proceeds of her suit against the city. In 1966 I was able to watch "Batman" in color!

In 1968 my parents bought a bigger house, and Aunt Sonia moved to New Jersey to live with Aunt Eva. We visited often.

Sigh. She died too young.


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