Bessie

When I was young, my family lived in this brown house, that was across the street from two bars, there was a big tree (with swings) in a big backyard, with a poppy tree and chives that grew in around the house. I really liked living in that house, mostly because of the neighbors. There were a lot of kids that my siblings and I would play with and then there was our next door neighbor Bessie.

She was an elderly Jewish woman, who also happened to be our landlord. She was your typical grandmother figure, except older and crankier. My mom would help her run errands and do chores (my family above anything else respects elderly people). I would occassionally go over to Bessie's apartment, she would watch me while my mom was gone or I would just visit, and she would give me and my siblings candy. It wasn't the best candy, kind of like that stale candy that would stick together but hey, I was kid and it was candy. I still remember that her pantry was stocked with sweets. Later in my life, when I would tell my mom about this, she would always shake her head and say, "She wasn't even suppose to have that stuff, she was diabetic."

Other things I remember about her is that her apartment smelled musky and she had "old" furniture and pillows that would vibrate (don't even begin to ask me the purpose of those). She would call me and my siblings over when were playing in the yard, and then she gave us bread crumbs to feed the birds. She called my cousin Joey, "Howie." She would yell at us kids for lying in the grass, warning us that we would get polio. Basically, she was the awesomest old lady ever.

Eventually, she had to be moved to a retirement home, because she could no longer take care of herself, and she had no family to move in with (she never married or had children). I never saw her again, she passed a few years later. I just hope that while we were in her life we made her days a little brighter.