Aunt Blanchie.
My great aunt Blanchie passed away this past week at the age of 105 1/2 years. Blanchie was a true force of nature and just being around her filled you with energy. When I was a kid I always marveled at her energy and enthusiasm for life. She loved to dance, enjoyed a good stiff martini, and loved a good practical joke. She never seemed old to me despite her years.
When I graduated from high school my parents threw a party for me and the family was all there including Blanchie. I was so excited to be done with school and my best friend Pat and I had a road trip planned starting the next day. We were to get in my little truck and head south to Florida to meet girls and spend time on the beach. We’d never been there before and were pretty pumped about grabbing the atlas and getting the hell out of Rome, NY.
While at the party Blanchie asked me how I was celebrating my new found freedom from high school and I told her that Pat and I were headed out on a road trip – Blanchie instantly knew we weren’t going for the cultural experience but instead to meet girls. She then asked if she could join Pat and I and told me how much fun the 3 of us would have traveling and seeing the sights. We joked back and forth and I told here that she was of course welcome and  encouraged to join us. Pat and I were leaving the first thing the next morning and Blanchie told me she’d be ready. I of course thought this was all fun and that there was no way this then 74 year old woman would call my bluff.
The next morning the house is quiet and everyone is asleep when the doorbell rings. My parents get up and answer the door. A minute of so later my mom comes to my room and tells me that there is someone at the door that wants to see me. What the hell? I pull on some clothes and go to the door and there is Blanchie, all dressed for a road trip in a big flowery print and her suitcase in her hand. She gave me a big hug and told me she was ready for our trip and was packed and ready to go. I was dumbfounded. I was sleepy and not thinking straight and could not figure out what was going on. Was she serious? How do I tell her that Pat and I had other plans and that it wasn’t ‘sights’ we wanted to see? I was frozen in the doorway staring at pretty Blanchie, all dressed up and ready for a trip. My parents had straight looks on their faces and gave me no help.
Blanchie then came in for some coffee and breakfast. She had just driven over an hour from her home to ours and it was pretty darn early. I was asked to bring Blanchie’s suitcase in off the front porch and when I picked it up and realized it was empty I knew that I’d been had. I was more than a bit relieved to know that Pat and I wouldn’t be traveling with my 74 year old aunt. Bullet dodged.
In the end the road trip was fun with Pat and I having a good time but not much luck in meeting girls. The irony is that if we had convinced Blanchie to join us I’ll bet we would have had more fun.
If you would hold your virtual glasses high and and toast Blanchie. She liked her martinis very dry. I wish you could have met her – She will be missed.
Dave
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- Blanchie at 104 years old.
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- Blanchie at a glowing 105.
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11 responses to “Aunt Blanchie.”
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Wow, that is a great story about a fantastic woman. Glad you had the experience to have a such a wonderful family member.
I’m surprised she never asked you to make a bike for her 😉
Cheers to Aunt Blanchie!!! I may have to start drinking martinis. My condolences Dave.
Cheers indeed. She would’ve enjoyed my grandmother — we used to say she died at age 39, and she’d been 39 for over 60 years (she wouldn’t fess up her age, and ultimately we had to triangulate between other relatives). She also liked a martini — she explained you pour gin, put in an olive, and whisper “vermouth” over the glass, then hand it over.
Hey Dave, if we’re lucky, we will have had a Blanchie in our lives. Mine was my great-aunt Dorothy, a true character whose favorite expression when she was happy or excited was “Lord love a duck!”. My condolences. Tim
Dave:
I’m sorry for you and your families loss. I’m raising a glass as I type this and keeping you all in my thoughts.
Parris
Blanchie was our neighbor for more than 25 year. We were always amazed at her energy and zest for life. It would amaze us to pull in our driveway and find her on a ladder cleaning her own windows in her 80’s. I would always think, “I hope I can be like her at that age”. She was a wonderful neighbor, our children loved her and it was never the same when she packed her bags to move to Florida permanently. She will truly be missed by many and left a legacy I am sure to live life to the fullest. Who could ask for anything more.!!!
What a neat story and a neat person.
Bye Blanchie 🙂
wow! she looks awesome in those pics! sorry for your loss, Dave, but she looks like she lived well & was quite a hoot. – Garro.
Aunt Blanchie was my favorite… When I was little, I remember holding her high on a pedistal when my mom, her sister, Verna Mae, told me that she and Uncle Joel danced for royalty. So you can imagine my surprize when she attended my brothers wedding and drank out of the spiked punch bowl!!!!
My mom passed earlier this year and now Aunt Blanchie went home to see all of her siblings. Ironical she was the eldest of her siblings and yet the last to go. Yes, an incredible woman who will surely be missed by anyone whose life she touched…
Marie
I remember many things that Aunt Blanchie is famous for within our family. I am the daughter of her youngest sister, who also recently passed away. They would share weeks together in Frankfort, NY going to “Sally Ann’s” the local thrift store. They would dine in the nice restaurants they foound along the way to and from her home. She would get busy at home playing the piano like a perfect pianist. They would play by the hour together all the tunes of yesteryear. It was great to listen to when I would return to take my mom back home.
Aunt Blanchie and her other sister and brothers each “adopted” each one of my mother’s children the year her husband drown on Black River in 1965. Each one chose our names and made sure Santa did not forget our house that year. It took hours for three very energetic young children to unwrap all those gifts. And as I remember they were perfect sizes and the toys that warmed our hearts and fulfilled our christmas wish lists completely.
I also remember a trip to Florida that changed my husband’s mind about the movie “Driving Miss Daisy”. He had volunteered to drive her automobile the the car train in Pennsylvania so she did not have to drive alone one year. Unfortunately, Aunt Blanchis, in her usual haste, tripped on a carpet on her way into a Denny’s they had stopped at for a bite to eat along the way. She injured her knee really bad, and needed to seek medical attention for it before they could even travel on. After seeing the emergency room physician, Aunt Blanche was informed she would need to rest the leg and keep it elevated for the next several days to allow the swelling to receed. My husband carried her out of the ER and into several motel rooms on their continued journey to Florida. She was propped up in the back seat of her car among pillows and blankets while he drove the remainder of the trip and he came home with stories of the family that were shared with him along the highway between Pennsylvania and Florida. To this day, he remmbers that trip most of all as a true “JOY Ride”. I would give anything to have been a bug on the windshield for that trip.
The stories continue but will remain forever in my heart. Aunt Blnche will be missed from coast to coast for many years to come. May she rest in peace and be there at the pearly gates to greet me with a dry martini and be ready to dance me to the great beyond! Rest in peace Aunt Blanche.
This is wonderful. I never dreamed that anyone outside my little cycling world would ever read my post about Blanchie. I just wanted to use this little, space I’m fortunate enough to have some control over to share my quick story and my admiration for the woman and to toast her life. The response this has gotten from such a wide mix of cycling friends and family members I’ve never really been able to get to know has brought a tear to my eye. Thank you all.
Blanchie would have liked this.
dave