Yesterday, Tuesday, January 4, 2005, my grandma passed away.
She was 95 1/2. It was only 1 1/2 years ago that we had to take away her high heels. Yes, really. She would click down the hall in her heels and with her walker. It was a hoot. Click click click-click!
WOW.
Her name is Lucille Laurencia Johnson Gingras
What can I say about her...
She was born in Warba, Minnesota and grew up in Superior, WI. My great -grandparents had a grocery store and every day, as a girl, she would have an ice cream cone...sometimes two. I guess the ice cream habit is genetic. She was an excellent bookkeeper, a fanatical proofreader, and an avid reader.
One of the neatest stories I can tell is how she and my grandfather eloped. She would LOVE to tell this story and get this glimmer in her eye, especially when there was someone new to tell. I always had her tell this story when I introduced her to a new friend of mine. (i think I am telling this right but if I have a few details wrong, my apologies, but they did elope and the main points are correct)
My grandfather, Julien, was born and raised Catholic. My grandmother, Lucille, was born and raised Lutheran. Grandma and Grandpa met at a dance. In those days, that was the equivalent of “clubbing” and people actually danced then. My grandfather was a pretty dapper guy and was pretty popular, both with having a lot of guy friends and a bunch of sweethearts for girls too. He worked at the Newspaper in Superior and also for the Bishop as his driver. Grandma was working as a secretary at the Popkin Furniture company and had some pretty good girlfriends that she chummed with ( her quote). She said that Grandpa was a pretty handsome fella and a very good catch.
So...the courting began.
They went to dances. They went to speakeasies. (those are great stories) They went to movies. And they fell in love.
And that love led to marriage. But the problem was...they were both of different religions and back in the day, that concept just wasn’t thought of. You just didn’t do that. You married in your faith and that was that.
But Julien Loved Lucille and Lucille loved Julien, and nothing was going to stop these two from getting married. ( I could start singing the Ballad of John and Yoko here....)
They both wanted a blessed marriage though, so my grandfather went to the Bishop and asked for special dispensation. It was granted. ( My grandfather also was the caddy for the Bishop and overlooked the Bishop's golf scoring....so I think that a favor could pretty much be granted.) And during the depression and at that time...a woman didn’t work if she was married and the both of them wanted to save money to buy a newspaper and run it together. Every penny was for a goal and 2 people working for the goal was better than one.
My grandmother’s birthday is June 12th...and my grandfather took her the night before to dinner and gave her a small gift that night and dropped her off that night at her house like any other date night. Usually they waited a night or two to see each other, but he told her that he will be picking her up tomorrow. When she tells the story, she would say it was then she knew that something was going to happen, because my grandfather was really excited when he told her...like he had a surprise and the man loved giving gifts and surprises.
So grandpa picked gramma up the next day, her birthday, and in the back seat were two of their closest friends. It was then that my gramma knew what was going to happen. My grandfather had arranged for a priest to marry them in a neighboring town. My grandpa also arranged for the license and for them to have dinner. he was a romantic
So they got married...and then at the end of the evening, he dropped gramma off at her home, kissed her good night and told her that he will see her tomorrow and went home to his parent’s home.
Unbelievable!
Now...the both of them continued to “date”. Friends would help the two of them be alone together and they both continued to work.
UNTIL....
Grandma was pregnant with my father.
So, they both had to tell their parents. My great-grandmother Johnson had passed away, but my Great-grandfather, Henry was living in the family home with my Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Fred ( my godparents). They took the news well. They were happy for the two of them and wished them well.
Now...then they told the Gingras side. OH BOY! ( Grandpa was the oldest son of the oldest son...Your first name is Julien and then your maternal grandfather’s name is your middle name. And I will save the "julien naming" for another post)
Well, it didn’t go too well. Grandmother Gingras wanted Julien to marry a nice Bohemian Catholic girl from the parish in Alouez and her Julien up and went and married a blue-eyed Scandinavian Lutheran from the city proper. ( Superior was built in sections, kind of like buroughs in NYC) And what about the babies!!! Let’s just say all hell did break loose for a while. But then my father was born... there was a baby boy to carry on the family name and tradition. And he was the golden child, spoiled to death and loved by all of his grandparents. More stories for another post.
And the story ends here...for a while.
I couldn’t imagine being secretly married for 2 1/2 years.
I couldn’t imagine being dropped off at my home on my wedding night, getting up the next morning and going to work like nothing had happened.
and that is the elopement story.
Pretty cool...and very romantic.
And I think maybe the next few posts might be “Grandma Memories”.
PS I feel a bit bad. My grandmother did play favorites and didn’t always treat my sister well. ( I Could share some really DOOZIES of stories of the Ballad of Julien and Lucille, but I’m not airing family laundry. The two of them were not saints - issues...that’s all I’ll say.) I wish my sister had some more gramma stories for her memories, but I know she has some.
We are all traveling to Superior together and on Friday january 7th will be her funeral and burial.
It's been a long week.
