The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1946-08-26
THE LIFE OF MY AUNT HATTIE
BY NINA LESLIE cALLEJA
PART
y NINA LESLIE cALLEJA
PART L


When my Greataunt Martha
Ann died in 1910 she was some
where in the neighborhood of a
hundred and five years old. No
one kne wexactly. She had been
stoutly maintaining for years
that she wa seighty-one, and this
in the face of having two grand
children in their late sixties. But
no one ever bothered to point out
this slight evidence to the con-
trary, because Aunt Matte was
not the sort of woman one dis
agreed with or contradicted. The
general opinion extant in the
family was that il would be safer
to argue with a buzz-saw than to
cross The. Old Lady.
With one breath she'd say
"Eighty-one years old", and with
the next she would launch into
a description of Queen Victoria's
coach as it had passed through
the London streets on the way
TO the coronation ceremonies.
This event. which took place in
the year 1887, she claimed to re-
member distinctly, because, she
said, she was a littel girl at the
time and her father had hoisted
her up on his shoulder to view
the procession.
Keen Memory OF Deep Past
II is entirely possible that she
remembered. because while what
ever had happened yesterday and
last week and last year meant
nothing at all to Aunt Matte,
and she never could remember a
conversation unless it had taken
place at least twenty years pre-
viouSIy, the deeper the penetra-
ton into the past, the clearer the
details were in her mind.
She could tell you, for instance,
about her wedding dress when
she married Old Man Faulk,
when she was only three months
past fifteen years old. Tt was of
white satin embroidered with
pale pink rosebuds and paler
green leaves. furthermore, she
had worn seven petticoats, and
every one of them except the
second from the bottom had had
three rows Of blue ribbon flushed
in and out of the handmade lace
eyelets. She could tell you the
number Of buttons on her first
sons first knee-pants suit,
Not Silent. Even In Death
was not present at her pass
ing, but Aunt Lola, writing me
about it. said: "She<w conscious
right to the last and talking" Of
course Aunt Matte was talking
She had been talking full speed
for a hundred years, more or less,
which made me feel that perhaps
even Death was. not strong
enough TO do thorough 81
iencing job on her. Certainly
Aunt Mattie's entrance into the
hay Hereafter was far from that
of shivering, uncertain, scared
wrath: rather, she probably
bounded upon the scene militant
ly, blatantly. vibrantly, a can
tankerous spirit spelling for trou-
bic. stamping its foot and loudly
demanding to know its where
abouts. and why, and fast
Considering her character. her
funeral could Chsily have been
the source of the new famous joke
of the thunderstorm coming up
as the casket of the deceased was
being lowered into the grave.
Just as the first clod was cast
down onto the coffin there was a
terrific thunderclap, whereupon
a voice among the mourners muir
INJURED: well, she got there"
Handed Down
A mere change of environment.
even Heaven or He'll. was moth
ing to faze Aunt Matte. During
her life she had been handed
down from generation to genera
lion. like the family silver. When
the young people were contem-
plating marriage and the build
ing of a home. they automatically
allowed for "a room for her." be-
cause they knew that sooner or
later she'd park herself in on
them for an indefinite stay. and
she'd kick up a sizablel fuss if
she didn't have proper and par
ocular accommodation.
She was no pathetic, retiring
old lady to creep in and out of
her kinfolk'S houses, feeling neg
lected, apologize, eager not to be
burdensome. Nobody neglected
Aunt Matte, because nobody neg
lects volcanoes. She usually ar
rived like dynamited lava, and if
she happened to be in a fairly
civil mood she would be just
mildly insulting to her hosts. But
if she made entrance and an
nounced, Il feel evil today" the
thing to do was scamper for COW
er fast unless you wanted to be
blasted verbally into the middle
of next week.
No Asking-She Demanded
She kept everybody within
hailing distance on constant
run, doing unnecessary things for
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