2015: REST IN PEACE, "CUZ"

Aging has its good and bad moments. One of the bad ones involves our daily look to the obituary page of the morning newspaper. We senior citizens remember in our younger years seeking the wedding announcement section of the daily paper to see which of our classmates tied the knot. Now we check the obits to see if we know anyone who has gone to be with the Lord. Some of those obits touch a warm spot in my heart. Above is the 1944 photo of my cousin Charlie Gaudette whose dad (my Uncle) was the Superintendent of Trenton's War Memorial building for so many years. Charlie was movie star handsome and Mom Glover used to say he had a remarkable resemblance to MGM's Peter Lawford. Rest in peace, Charlie. You were still another tribute to those who were members of the legendary "GREATEST GENERATION.

1937: MY UNCLE CHARLIE GAUDETTE, SUPERINTENDENT OF TRENTON'S WAR MEMORIAL

Out of all my relatives, Uncle Charlie was the most successful. He was a great guy. A wounded veteran from World War I, he was a piano playing whiz. He often sat down at our piano when he and my Aunt May visited our house. He always warmed up with at tune that went something like this:

"Rings on her fingers, bells on her toes, elephants to ride upon, my little Irish Rose,

Come to your nabob, upon St. Patrick's Day, sing jumbo jumbo jumbo jitty boo jay, O'Shea..."

How do I remember these things from over 70 years ago? Beats me; I inherited my mother's ability to remember even the most obscure things.