Passages: The Class of 1917

My Aunt Loretta, my mom's younger sister, with first cousin Bill, Columbus, Ohio, August 2011.With my mom, this would be “the class of 1915-1917.”

I let my mom’s first cousin Bill know that my mom’s 94-year-old sister, my dear feisty Aunt Loretta (photo right), was not doing well. She’s got a large tumor that’s spread around her stomach and area. She's getting some radiation, to shrink the tumor, but that's about all that can be done.  It seems that all of a sudden she is at the end of life. Hospice is coming.

"We didn’t want it to happen," I emailed Bill and his wife Joan. Bill emailed back:

"This is not good news but it is not surprising. Loretta is the youngest of  the class of 1917, made up of Josephine (23 February), then of me, 2 June, and Loretta, the youngest. No matter how you cut it, we are all due sooner if not later. We pray for a...recovery, and if not, a quick and painless good-bye.”

I'm not ready for this, my mom's sister, our remaining link. So many memories. How lucky that we made a special trip to see Bill and his wife Joan, both retired Sociology professors at Ohio State University, when my Aunt and her granddaughter Roz visited Sylvania in August 2011.

It was a wonderful visit, a Luchetti family reunion (Roz's photo album cover below). For Bill and Loretta, it was a warm and nostalgic reunion after many years apart.  They shared memories and love.

But these passings, these "good-byes," are sad.  I hope "the class of 1917" stays with us a while longer.