A Grandmother's Tears, In Her Own Words.

Copyright 2017, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

(Presented in her own spellings, grammar, punctuation.  I added some white space and dashes to hopefully assist with the reading.)

Grandma’s Thoughts

When Patrica Mother died Oct. 12, 1941 she was a good mother and loved her baby, when she went back to the hospital the second time she told Mildred  -  went they took her down stairs where they were living   -  Please Mildred take care of my baby, Mildred said, I sure will and don’t worry  -  then they left the baby at my daughter Hedwig house and was there 6 weeks  -    What a sweet baby she was   -   then on Thankgiving day, after we had Thankgiving dinner over at Hedwig  -  Ernie wanted me to take her so we brought her home that night    -  we had a baby bed and all her baby clothes such nice clothes.   -  We gave her Mother a baby shower and sure were nice clothes   -  then we put the baby bed in the front room where it was nice and warm and my bedroom in the backroom so it was quite hard get up at night to give her, her bottle  -   but I loved to do it,  -  she was my sweetheart, at eight months I had her picture taken in the front room on the coauch she make such a pretty picture   I had one large Picture and 8 small ones

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in May 1942 I took to a children specialist twice a month at Goodell school   -  this Dr Louis he came from Wyanotte Hospital very well known through the river district, she got shots as what baby suppose to have three times   -  the Dr said she is a healthy baby and is doing fine   He asked about her parents.  I told him her mother died, when the baby was 3 wks old and her dad was somewhere which we didn’t know, but, that they both had T.B.  So he asked me if her dady wasn’t cure of that dicease then I shouldn’t let the baby come close to him, if he should come around,  -  but he never showed up till 1948   -  the baby walked when 11 months  -  O we had so much fun with her to learn her to walk it was fun, she learn to talk very fast and at 2 she started to sing  -  O she said out those words so cute  -  Rosa Day and nursnery rhymes and lot other words, by then she was 3 yrs old we got a large baby bed for her and put her in our bedroom,   -  she learn to say her prayer, Now I lay me down to sleep.

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and her table paryers, Abba farther Amen,   -  and got a high chair, where she really like to sit and enjoy her meals,   -  she ate everything soup, vegetables fruits  -   when she was just a small baby she had Dexmalto Karo syrup and ornage juice and cod liver oil.   She growed up to be a healthy girl   -  play out side lots of frech air, not like the city smoke and dust and family living close together out here -  it was like in the country  -   O how she liked to pay out side with her bicycle and with her slede in the winter  -  played with her friends   -  when she was five I sent her to Kindergarden and Calvary Luth school   -  always had her dressed warm and clean   -  always clean she had a nice snow suit a red plaid it was sure nice and cute  -   the Minister pick her up for school every morning and the teacher brought her home at night,  -  O how I love my Baby  -  when she was six yrs old she was in the first grade  -  she went with us to church every Sunday and how she like to sing in

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... then when she was seven
...was in the 2 grade Mrs. Grube
...was her first teacher   Mrs Schuller
...was her 3 grade teacher and her was Mrs. Nuetchlein was her last teacher,  -  so I don’t know what teacher she has now her daddy pick her up of the street near our neighbor place May 16   -  What a shame   -  O how I miss her,   -  she has a two wheel bicyle, and many other play thing stories books - color books  - painting set, teddy bear and dolls -  a cradle rocking chair and a toy paino   -  puppy  - we always had a dog for her to play, ice skates  - sled, jumping rope  -  balls of all kinds  -  we got her every thing she needed   - what a child needs,   -  she was so happy with us  -  God Bless her where ever she may be  -  I want her to come home to grandma & grandpa then we will be a happy family again  -  she loved her Grandpa  -  went fishing with him, took her to school with the car  -    took her to the toy factory.

(Here is a photo of Patricia and her grandmother, Lilly Anna Gerth Gehrke, one of the dolls, and if you look in the bottom left corner, one of the puppies.) 

* I believe that this was written on the occasion of a court appearance over custody of Patricia.  The father won custody.  The family rift continued for years.  Patricia's life was hard, she eventually lived with another family, with whom she grew up. She described her early life, "My mother died at my birth; my father had no use for me.  I grew up dirty, many times begging for food and living in a car.  When I was twelve, I ran away and lived with an elderly couple till the age of seventeen.  These people were very good to me."  Yes, I have written about Patricia several times before here on Reflections.  See the links below.

Wordless Wednesday, Patricia Bell Lombardini

Wordless Wednesday, almost wordless

85th Carnival of Genealogy, Orphans and Orphans

I also wrote about Patricia's mother:

99th Edition Carnival of Genealogy, Religious Rites Can Tell A Life Story

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85th Carnival of Genealogy, Orphans and Orphans

The challenge is explained thus:

The first type of orphan refers to those ancestors or relatives who lost their parents when they were young.

The second type of orphan would be those siblings or cousins of our ancestors who could be called “reverse orphans.” They are the relatives who, for whatever reason – death at a young age, never having married or had children, or having children who did not survive to provide descendants – have no direct descendants of their own, so it falls to us, their collateral relatives, to learn and write their story.

This Carnival is hosted by Greta of Greta's Genealogy Bog.  Thank you Greta!

For my orphan, I choose, Patricia Mildred Bell Croskey Lombardini. Pat was born September 22, 1941. Her mother died about 16 days later. Her father did not die, so in this respect, Pat was half an orphan. For the first 9 years of her life, Pat was raised by her mother’s parents, Fred and Lilly (Gerth) Gehrke. When she was 9, her life made a drastic change, as she was “abducted” by her father, and a nasty court case followed. Eventually, Pat stayed with her father, which was a hard experience, even living in his car at one point. By the time she was a teen she was living with the Croskey family. During her high school years, Pat discovered music, a discovery that would become her greatest gift from God and to all who would come to know and love her.

She entered the convent two weeks after graduation. She studied and became a teacher by 1972. Her years in the convent and religious homes were very trying for her and by the 1970's she realized she had to leave the sisterhood and her life took another new course.

On 24 Jul 1978, in a civil ceremony, Pat married John Anthony (Tony) Lombardini, her soul-mate, an ex-priest. They were devoted to each other, but Tony desperately missed being a priest. Eventually they converted to the Antiochian Orthodox Church and in 1983 they were married in that church, a service that Man and I were honored to have attended.  The ceremony was performed by Bishop Malatius Barnaba, Archibishop of Homs and Hama, Syria.

Above:  Tony and Pat at their religious marriage, 1983.

Both Pat and Tony spent the last years of their lives serving their Lord and the Antiochian Orthodox Church, he as a priest, she as a gifted organist and vocalist. She even wrote hymns for funerals. She wrote more than 50 songs based on the Sunday gospels. Man and I have tapes of Pat singing, she had the voice of an angel, sweet, pure and true.

Above, Pat and Tony, serving their Lord, together.

Pat fought cancer, won the first few battles, but, lost the last one on May 16, 1997. Pat was laid to rest at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Southfield, Oakland County, Michigan, where in 2001 her beloved Tony joined her.

Pat and Tony left no blood children, no heirs. This makes Pat a reverse orphan, per the description of this challenge. After Tony’s passing, his family returned many of Pat’s photo albums and family heirlooms to Man’s mother. We now have them, scanning many of the photos. Pat was also the subject of my post on October 28, 2009, a photo which I discovered while scanning her photo albums, I love the subtle sense of black humor it represents, the fun that she and Tony enjoyed together.

I am always touched by Pat’s life story, her mother’s death, the formative years with her mother’s family, the custody battle, the dark years after, her difficult teen years, her years of learning and sisterhood, her love affair with Tony and her fight with the cancer demons. Through it all she sang and played and stayed a sweet loving creature.

Therefore, Pat is my “Orphan and Orphans”.

Patricia Mildred Bell Croskey Lombardini

* Antiochian Orthodox Church is also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.

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Wordless Wednesday, Patricia Bell Lombardini

Patricia Bell Croskey Lombardini, 1941 - 1997.  Photo taken sometime in the 1980's in Wisconsin.

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