Tuesday, December 2, 2008

MOORE THAN JUST A "DOT"

Minnie A. Moore was always know to us children as Great Aunt "Dot"Moore. I never knew what her real name was until she died. She was such a beautiful little woman and she loved children and always fussed over us like she was just meeting my brother and I for the first time.
My father's parents were both deceased so we did appreciate this woman that seemed like
a warm, caring, grandmother. We couldn't get enough of her.

She wore ankle length dresses and smelled of lilac water. Her fine,curly white hair was pulled back and always piled on top of her head and curls were always trying to escape. Her face was full of wrinkles but it seemed the perfect place for her wonderful smile and her twinkling blue eyes.

Great Aunt Dot was very fond of my dad and mother. My mother had gone to school and lived in Chicago and Dot appreciated her interest in music and literature. Dot was a avid reader and was happy to see my mother encourage reading and music in our home. She had one daughter, Elizabeth unmarried and employed as a private secretary. They both doted on my brother, Bob and myself. My cousins were all boys--I was the only girl in my generation so I was spoiled even by the boys. They included me but, they all called me "Squirt".

My mother took me to see her at least once a week, my brother would go to a movie with his friends but I usually chose to stay with Aunt Dot. She would read to me and as I got older, I read to her. One of the best things about her was she never talked down to children, she always visited with us as if were grown. She answered questions the same way.

I stayed over night with her several times and none of the boys were ever allowed that privilege. I would sleep in a small folding bed that had been Elizabeth's in Aunt Dot's bedroom. In the morning she would sit at her dressing table let me brush her beautiful long white hair and then she would put it up. She showed me how she could sit on her hair. Very few of the family ever saw her with out her hair being that wonderful, curly, pile of white hair pinned up in that very fluffy manner.

The first time I told my dad about brushing her hair. He responded with,"Wow,Sis, I don't think I have ever seen her with her hair down! And she let you brush it,too? I think that is special don't you?" I nodded in the affirmative.

She and Elizabeth continued over the years to hold us close. Elizabeth chronicled all of the cousins growth by taking loads of pictures of all of us. Then when my children were born Elizabeth continued by doing the same thing with my children--even during her long battle with multiple sclerosis.

After World War ll, Aunt Dot and Elizabeth wanted to have a large family dinner to welcome the boys, (my bother Bob and our cousin Bob) home. In all of her pictures she could not find a picture of the boys together without me in it. So at this special dinner the place cards had a picture of the three of us all looking like three little ragamuffins!

More on Dot and Elizabeth another time

No comments: