Kitty Geissler

Aunt Kitty

My mother’s Aunt Kitty Geissler is an extraordinary woman.  It’s difficult to explain how special she actually is – you have to meet her.

It really struck me this week.  We all travelled home to be with my family in Dublin when my grandmother died, and Kitty travelled too.  Not very extraordinary so far, but let me tell you a little bit about her.

She was born in Limerick and journeyed  to New York as a steerage passenger on the Baltic.  Leaving her family at only 16, she was greeted by her aunts who lived in a large apartment building in Manhattan.  She recalls thinking that her aunts must have been very rich if they owned such a large building! 

She worked as a childminder at first and then got married and had her first child, Georgie, with her husband George.  He drove her home with their baby and left for the war.  He was a soldier in the American Army and was in the first draft of soldiers in World War II.  She has an amazing memory, however, she couldn’t recall the name of the beach upon which he landed on D-Day in Normandy.

They went on to have two more children, Alice and Mary, and moved to a beautiful house in Tarrytown, New York, where Kitty still lives.  She sleeps on the third floor of the house and walks up and down three flights of stairs many times during the day.

 

She drives an old car to mass and to the grocery store each day, although her granddaughter has started to drive her around a little now.

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the entire family every year might be a challenge for some people, but Kitty enjoys it.  The table is filled with between 15 and 20 people each year.

She still recalls the names of the people she travelled on the boat with and attended most of their funerals, and the funerals of some of their children.

She just returned from a cruise in the Caribbean and when my mother asked if she ‘would be able’ to fly to Dublin, she told her that if she was able for the cruise, she’d be able for the flight.

She doesn't walk slowly anywhere and she still jumps in and out of cars like she’s a young woman.  She stood greeting mourners at my granny’s funeral for about 40 minutes and was still not complaining of being tired.  She stayed up every night of the trip until after midnight drinking whiskey and chatting.

None of this sounds particularly impressive until I tell you her age.  She will turn 102 in November! 

People queued up to meet her at the mass and in the pub afterward.  They were rubbing her for ‘good luck’, hoping that some of her longevity and energy would rub off on them.

Someone compiled a group of photos from St Patrick’s Day celebrations across the globe and one picture showed a woman of 92 who had travelled from Ireland to be with her daughter in New York.  By coincidence, Kitty happened to be in Dublin for St Patrick’s Day, but it was decided that Dublin City might not be the best parade to bring a woman of 102…  She watched the parade on TV and then left Dublin early the next morning to have an impromptu family reunion in Hospital, Co Limerick where she was greeted by people who probably thought they’d never see her in Ireland again.

It will probably be Kitty’s last visit to Ireland and although tinged with sadness, what a fabulous trip it was.