Written 2014-05-26

Memorial Day and Grandmother Bertha Racz

Memorial Day always brings back a flood of memories, of the men and women who sacrificed so much for our country. I think of Dad in his army uniform, his head tilted just a little to the right.

My sister, Maureen Duncan, brought back other memories. She visited the grave of Bertha Racz, our maternal grandmother. Bertha died a young woman, born in 1906 and died in 1942 of a brain tumor. There really wasn’t much which could have been done, given the time period plus the fact that my grandfather, Geza Racz, was a coal miner living in a company town. When Mom and we girls would visit Grandma Bertha’s grave, we would gaze at the small oval picture, caught forever in time. None of us ever knew her and Mom really didn’t talk much of her. It was thoughtful that Maureen paid a visit to the cemetery and planted some pansies.