I Am Turning Into My Aunt

Usually, we turn into our mothers

Growing older often means we mature and start to become just like our parents. I see this to an extent in my case, but lately it seems I am becoming more like my Aunt Arlyne.

I first became aware of this trend last Christmas when I wore a rhinestone encrusted tiara that had a horsewoman on it. My husband took one look at me, made a funny face, and said “You’re turning into your Aunt Arlyne”. I was flattered even if he was trying to accuse me of being an eccentric old lady before my time.

This is the eulogy I read at her funeral last year:

My Aunt Arlyne had everything that made life worth living for 91 years including a bit of a challenging childhood after being born in Manhattan on June 25, 1927 to Anna and Louis Wasserberger. Her mother told her the ticker tape parade on that day in honor of Charles Lindbergh’s first transatlantic flight was actually for her birthday. They were delayed getting to the hospital, but they did and so much of the rest is history! To know Arlyne was to love her, and to love her was to agree with her, or at least keep your opposing thoughts to yourself. Some words that come to mind when we think of Arlyne are storyteller, performer, intellectual, and activist

She had a rich academic career that began at PS 16 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She was a bright student and went on to attend Girls Commercial High School where she wrote for the school newspaper and once interviewed Lena Horne.

She went on to work at a coffee shop in New York on 14th St., and a law office in Long Island City.

When she was 20 she married Louis DeSena. They started out on Underhill Ave. in Brooklyn then moved to Florida for 2 years before moving back to Woodside, Queens. She had her first child there, Donna in 1951.They lived in Bellerose Long Island where her son, Richard was born before they moved to Kendall Park. She lost her beloved Donna in 1953 after a tragic bout with spinal meningitis, the first deadly blow to her heart. Andrea was born in Kendall Park in 1958. She bought 4 lots of property in Montauk Point, NY where she built a beach house that so many of us visited for years. By a show of hands, how many of you autographed the piece of driftwood in Montauk?