| Gus Wurth | Anna Massal | Loni Palkovic |
Anna Wurth Massal
1914--1998
Pauline Palkovic offered these words at the Memorial Service for Anna Massal in Schenectady, New York in 1998.
Aunt Anna was a very special part of my life from the very beginning. My earliest memories are of the house on Roosevelt Avenue when Aunt Anna lived upstairs and I would go visit her often.
In later years, visiting Grandma meant visiting Aunt Anna too.
When I was 8, I spent a week with Aunt Anna and Grandma Loni while my mom and dad had their “second honeymoon.”
When I was 10, I was responsible for pushing Aunt Anna’s wheel chair through the cobble stoned streets of Europe where she introduced me to relatives I’d never imagined I had.
The Caravan Anna, Tom, Loni, Pauline, Rose
|
She could fix plumbing, bake the best cookies in town, patiently teach a teenager how to tat, and tell a story like nobody else. And did she have stories to tell. Happily, as a result of a college assignment, I have recorded on paper what I never would have otherwise remembered. |
 |
Her life was one adventure after another, starting from the great emigration.
As a brave 9 year old, she came to this country “the year Hitler first reared his ugly head.” with Grandma Loni, Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Gus, she went through Ellis Island on Flag Day, 1923.
She left school to start working, and lost her right index finger to a laundry mangle.
She met her husband through the mail, and as a GI Gypsy, traveled the world, living in exotic locales from Panama to Madrid to Chile to Idaho to Upstate New York, collecting stories, and teaching her children to be independent.
|
|
|
During the interview for that college paper, Aunt Anna told me “I can’t believe I’ve been to all those places. Did I dream it? That’s what my past sometimes seems like - a dream. I always wanted to travel, but I also wanted to get married and have a family. I never thought I would have both at the same time. How lucky can one get?”
Very lucky, Aunt Anna. We had you for eighty four years. And you enriched our lives enormously. We will not forget you or your adventurous spirit or the love you gave us.
We miss you!
Anna Wurth Massal: Born October 15, 1914 Niederliersbach, Germany. Died December 14, 1998 Tulare, CA.
We invite members of Anna and Eddie's family to add more details to the stories of their lives.
