Gloria Undine Bush Bickerstaff

At our Family Easter Celebration, one of our conversations around the dinner table was in reference to a family member that apparently has made such an impression on us that we bring her up at nearly every get-together. I’m talking about our great great aunt (yes that’s 2 greats) Gloria Undine Bush Bickerstaff. We call her Aunt Undine. She’s a sweet , 88 year old lady that has led a pretty interesting life as far as lives go I suppose.

She was born May 4, 1921 in Sun, LA to my great great grandparents Norvell Newton Bush (aka PaPa Bush) and Mary Fredreca Grantham. She was the youngest of five children. Her older sister was my paternal Great Grandmother, Velma Zenith Bush (b. Jul 14, 1908 – d. Jun 21, 1982).

Aunt Undine started working for the telephone company right out of high school and stayed with that position until she retired. As far as I know, she was married 3 times. The first 2 times were to abusive men whom she left and divorced the very first time they hit her. The third husband was Quinton Bickerstaff, a man that we really don’t know anything about but apparently he treated her well as they were married until he passed away a few years ago. I vaguely remember seeing him only once.

Aunt Undine & Quinton lived in the house she and my great grandmother grew up in. It was a homemade from 2 “shotgun” shanties placed side by side and joined together to make one bigger house. Eventually, an updated kitchen and garage were added on to this house. She had recently passed the property on to my father and moved out of the old house into another that she owned located in the nearby town of Bogalusa, LA. Dad recently tore the old house down but DH and I inherited the plank wood floors that we now have in our home.

Anyway, every time my dad took my siblings and I to go visit with Aunt Undine, she would NEVER let us in her house. We always sat out in the driveway or front yard in lawn chairs and visit together. I remember having a lunch of tuna fish sandwiches and Tang orange drink provided by Aunt Undine also. I seem to remember some confusion regarding cans of Tuna and cans of Cat food (if my sister is reading this, please refresh my memory!!!).

As the years went by and we continued to visit her, my sister and I would wonder about the inside of the house and why we weren’t ever allowed in….even to use the restroom. She collected and hoarded so much stuff that just to get through her garage and into the home required a bit of maze solving. At one visit, we were able to meander through the garage and discover stacks and stacks of old newspapers dating back 30 years! It was amazing and fascinated us to no end. We wanted to know more!

In 2001, several of us got together to celebrate Aunt Undine’s 80th birthday. We gathered at her other house for lunch and birthday cake. Now for some odd reason, we were allowed in this house but I had noticed that it was also getting more and more cluttered as time goes by. Once, on a visit to the restroom in the 2nd house, I opened the wrong door and discovered a stack of brand new lawn chairs, still in the plastic wrap. My thought at the time was, “What is an 80 y.o. lady going to do with all these brand new lawn chairs?”

I mentioned it to one of my sisters and eventually, we came to the conclusion that Aunt Undine suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. After all, she had grown up during the Great Depression and probably developed this habit as a result of that experience.

Aunt Undine had this annoying yet endearing trait. She loved us. At the end of every visit with her, she would make the rounds for hugs and kisses and she never failed to treat us to her trademark run on “LoveyaLoveyaLoveya…LoveyaLoveyaLoveyaLoveya” as she hugged and patted us on the noggin. She never had children so I guess that our visits meant more to her than we originally thought.

She’s currently spending her last days in a nursing home and sleeps a lot; quite the change from the independent woman who would spend every morning walking through the woods while talking with the Lord.

I should have spent more time talking with her years ago. I’m sure I would have learned much more about our family’s heritage.

I can't believe I don't have a decent picture of this woman! As much as we visited her I have found only one photograph of her and it's too fuzzy to make out anyone.