fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Submit Your Event
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Send Letter to the Editor
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s UP
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Subscribe to the What’s UP newsletter
  • Opinion
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Log Out
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

A death in the family

by Susan Barnett
August 10, 2020
in Village Voices
0
New horizons

My cousin Olga died this week. She was my dad’s youngest cousin, and she lived for many years in the family house in Rosendale. Locals knew her as Renee Smith. Her family knew her by her middle name, Olga.

She lived a long, full life and died not long after a visit with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In pictures of that visit, she looks frail. And she looks happy.

But she almost always looked happy.

When I think of her, I remember her laugh.  I can hear her dramatic delivery of superlatives, so much like her own mother, and my grandmother, her aunt. She was, as they would have described her, full of fun.

“It was simply hooorrrrible!” she would say of some experience, then laugh. “Unbelieeeeeevable!”

Her life was a series of entertaining stories, no matter what the reality of it may have been. Everyone she loved was simply perfect, and she loved everyone. She was no phony. She was never saccharine. It was how she chose to be. She saw the best in her family, without exception.

My father’s extended family spent every summer in the Rosendale house for three generations. On hot nights, the adults gathered on the back porch and told stories, argued, fought, and laughed while the children played in the woods or in the road.

Olga, a dark beauty who, in family lore, had once been mistaken for Elizabeth Taylor, always wore black eyeliner, pushed her curly hair around her face, and had a thing for hats. She was seldom without a hat, often a tall fake fur one, making her look like a glamorous Cossack.

She wrote poetry. She took care of her mother, her children, and her brother’s children when they needed her. She took care of me when I needed her, too.

When I moved back to Ulster County after many years away, one of the first things I did was take KB to meet her. We all went out for pie at the diner in New Paltz. It was a tradition when I was a kid. We used to go, two or three carloads of us, kids and adults, to get dessert. Even though everyone else was gone, it felt good to do that again with Olga, to share those memories over a slice of blueberry pie.

We spoke a few weeks ago. She didn’t mention she was bedridden. She laughed and asked about my family. And a few minutes later, she asked again.

Tonight, I imagine there’s a place that looks very much like the back porch in Rosendale. The family is there, waiting for Olga. All of them, all those dear people whom I adored though they were exasperating and difficult and sometimes unkind. They are family. They’ve been waiting for her, for the best of them.

“How was your life?” they ask her.

“Unbelieeeevable!” she will say, then burst out laughing.

And perhaps, later, they’ll go out for pie.


Read more installments of Village Voices by Susan Barnett.

Tags: Susan Barnett Village Voices
Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher

Susan Barnett

Related Posts

Village Voices are on hold
Village Voices

Village Voices are on hold

November 17, 2020
A liberal education
Village Voices

Keeping it all together

August 24, 2020
Writing about oneself
Village Voices

I need a day off

August 24, 2020
Saugerties initiative combating addiction and suicide adds more events
Village Voices

Time travel

August 24, 2020
Where to buy face masks locally
Village Voices

A story of three states

September 2, 2020
The kids talk politics
Village Voices

Stories on the ballot

August 23, 2020
Next Post
Ever-forward energy

Ever-forward energy

Weather

Kingston, NY
86°
Partly Cloudy
5:19 am8:29 pm EDT
Feels like: 90°F
Wind: 5mph SW
Humidity: 51%
Pressure: 29.92"Hg
UV index: 0
FriSatSun
81°F / 64°F
73°F / 59°F
77°F / 59°F
Kingston, NY weather forecast for tomorrow ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Our Newsletters
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Art
    • Books
    • Kids
    • Lifestyle & Wellness
    • Food & Drink
    • Music
    • Nature
    • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    • Hey Kingston
    • New Paltz Times
    • Woodstock Times
    • Week in Review

© 2022 Ulster Publishing