You’ve probably seen many photos and mentions of Arline during the course of this website, and yet I don’t think I ever really explained exactly who she was or why she was at a lot of our family funcitons throughout the years. She is my Dad’s first cousin, the daughter of my Grandma Range’s sister Bessie, and Bessie’s husband Joe. So that makes her my first cousin once removed. Admittedly, this seems like a relatively distant relative (no pun intended) to be spending Christmas Eves with.
Arline looking sharp in her younger days
But what you may not know is that after my Dad’s father passed away in November 1963, this left my Dad, who was just 16 at the time, and Grandma alone. Bill had already left the house, so this made things a bit rough. So Arline and her husband Carl (pictured with Arline and their son John in this Christmas picture from 1960) took them in to live for a while. Since Bessie was much older than my grandmother, Arline was more like an aunt to my Dad rather than a cousin.
Arline on her wedding day
By the time I came into the picture, my Grandma had re-married and my Dad obviously was out on his own, but the family’s with Arline never diminished. Arline & Carl, along with Arline’s brother Harold, was always included in any major family gatherings, including Christmas Eve. As far as my childhood Christmas’ go, their presence was always a given, and in fact during the early years, we actually had our family gathering at their house.
Arline and Carl at a family gathering in 1974 at Bill and Dottie’s house. On the left is Arline’s step-mother Hazel and on the right is a young boy named Brad.
Carl passed away in 1994, followed by Harold in 1999. During the 90’s my sister would often take her to the grocery store since she didn’t like to drive, and I would occassionaly pinch hit for Denise. She continued to come to a lot of our family functions after Carl’s death. I had another commonality with Arline as well: she had worked at Kroger all the way up until her retirement. One of the ladies she worked with and knew quite well was Sue Weller, who was both our neighbor and eventually my boss for over five years. I would frequently get her talking about her old days with the company.
Over the years, the number of times I would see Arline got less and less, but she was almost always there for our family Christmas Eve celebrations. This went all the way up until 2009. After that, Arline was moved to a nursing home and rarely go out. That year ended up being our last Christmas Eve with Arline, and in fact the last time I ever saw her.
My last photo with Arline, Christmas 2007
I regret the fact that I never got out to see her in the nursing home over the last few years. It was one of those things that I thought I would eventually get to, but never did. My Dad and Bill paid visits regularly, and sometimes she would know them and sometimes she wouldn’t.
I found out last Wednesday that she had passed away on the previous Thursday, December 5, 2013, at the age of 88. She was less than two months shy of her 89th birthday which would have been January 31.
Arline was a very sweet lady, and always appreciated our family, was thrilled that Denise and I did things to help her out, and I think she though of my Dad and Bill like two of her own. As it was she only had one son and two grandkids, and I think she was happy to have other loved ones in her life as well.
I’m thinking that Arline and the others with her will be having a separate Christmas Eve celebration this year, looking down on us and our ever growing family.
Return to December 2013… (under construction)
I remember Arline’s salt and pepper shaker collection. I went to her house with Barb and had never seen anyone have this collection. She was very proud and could tell you where and who she got each one from.
Bev
December 26th, 2013
And of course there was that amazing owl collection. They had hundreds and hundreds of owls all over their house and their condo in Florida.
Brad
December 27th, 2013
And, when they were younger, Lora and Rob would unscrew the salt and pepper shakers on Christmas Eve gatherings. Arline would have to go thru them to make sure they were all retightened after they left. It was quite a game.
Mom
January 2nd, 2014