LoveLasts: Keeping much-loved memories

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The Herbert Heroine LoveLasts®: Memories that still make us smile Know anything about bus rides in NYC? They sometimes can get crowded.

up with Kitty the Ketchup

Apparently that happened when my Dad was taking me—then three years old—to visit his oldest sister. We were both standing and a kind lady sitting in front of us offered to hold me in her lap.

She then started a conversation:

and Benny the Bird?

“How old are you sweetheart?”

Can you imagine growing

“I’m three.”

“Oh, she’s so bright!” the lady exclaimed, smiling up at my Dad. “Do you know where you’re going?”

“Yes,” I answered. “We’re having lunch at my aunt.”

“Sooo adorable,” she approved, continuing, “Does your aunt make good lunches?”

“Oh, yes. She makes sautéed shoelaces and fried girdles,” I explained.

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The friendliness turned to concern and when she stared up at my Dad, he rolled his index finger in a circle on one side of his brain “subtly” indicating my being not quite bright—while trying not to laugh.

You Have an Aunt Tillie?

Well, doesn’t everybody,? I asked a few years later, when a teacher —chastising a classmate’s apparent lie—said, “My Aunt Tillie you did!”

If you didn’t have an Aunt Tillie, you should have. MY Aunt Tillie was the lady making the exotic meals described on the bus, meals known to most as spaghetti and meatballs. The meals’ additional uniqueness related to the additional dining guests. Instead of a white rabbit and Mad Hatter, it was Kitty the Ketchup (the most frequently invited) and often Benny the Bird. Periodically Murray the Mustard was another attendee.

A Savvy Survivor Tillie didn’t arrive here from Eastern Europe ’til she was 13 years old, speaking only Polish and Yiddish. Yet her English skills became amazing. When she called to thank me for a hand-drawn birthday card I’d sent, she told this then eight-year-old, “I wanted to acknowledge your munificent generosity.” Learning to interpret her, it’s no wonder I was reading 12th-grade level by 6th grade.

Though a full-time homemaker, mother, and daughter (her mother lived downstairs), Tillie found a few other things to do. She was very active in her Sisterhood and various non-profits. And she became an artist. Everything from gorgeous oils to cute handdrawn bookmarks and family cards, often with her own poetry inside the latter.

So whether I it’s thanks to her amazing brisket or veal roast, her verbiage, or her tabletop “visitors,” this amazing lady, Tillie Herbert, will always be remembered for bringing smiles and joy to me and others blessed to have known her.

Love these memories? Want your own? Contact Wendy Meyeroff, developer of LoveLasts® and ask about options (including plain Word doc)/ prices: wjmeyeroff@gmail.com. Put LoveLasts in Subject.

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