Aunt Dorie

How sad and hard it is to write about someone who’s been so important to you.  I’ll have to say Aunt Dorie began for me as the baby daughter of Bill and Vera, my mom Marion the star to rise and snatch Dick, who would be my dad. 

Doris, as the less marriageable, was off to Mercy College nursing school.  She excelled, if not to honors. Shortly into her rotations at St. Mary’s, she was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, mandating a stay at the sanitarium till ’51.  Once out, she took a post in the Kalamazoo State (Psychiatric) Hospital, where she would toil till an old friend of hers recommended she enroll in Wayne State to acquire a proper degree, which she did, parlaying it into a faculty position she’d occupy, including chair of her department, until she finally retired . During these times she managed to find ways to spoil me rotten.   While I lived in Birmingham ’61-’63. A trip down to her Royal Oak home was pretty easy, but when I returned my dad said “it took two weeks to wring it all out of her.”  She sent me regular packages of cookies and cashews while in medical school, plus checks.  All she wanted were some updates on my progress, which I sent her, sporadically.  Ecstatic I’d be back in Ann Arbor, we got together pretty regular.  It helped I was chasing Nancy of Farmington Hills, whom they all liked.  As my affections turned to this Kathy chick, our mutual affections faded.   Of course there have been a few back and forth meetings, but we’ve approached these meeting more as an obligation.  Alas, she’s gone now, dying on Halloween night October ’03.  She always enjoyed Halloween, with all the kids.  The neighborhood kids released balloons in her honor afterwards.  So that I might commit something to her honor.  Let this post be it