by Ann Taugher

Created on: July 24, 2008

MY AUNT ELEGANT An Unforgettable Character"Please,please, play the piece about the fat girl popping her buttons. "Please, please". I begged my aunt.She was visiting my family and I always pestered her to play funny songs on the piano.Gracefully, with almost a sad little smile, she started to play. I squeezed onto the piano bench by her side. There really wasn't much room even though I was a skinny little 10 year old girl. You see, my aunt was very fat-not just fat-but BIG fat. She had beautiful snow-white hair, kindly brown eyes and usually wore a black or dark dress. She always wore a certain perfume. It was Devon Violets from England. It came in little ceramic bottles with painted violets on the side. She saved the bottles for me and they smelt so good . She had a dignity and calmness about her that I thought was elegant. That is why I called her My Aunt Elegant. Also when ever I suggested doing something, like playing Old Maid, she would reply,"Elegant, simply, elegant!" She was born Florence Allen in Vermont and was related to the famous Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys in the American Revolution time. In her youth she was such an accomplished pianist that she had the opportunity to play on the concert stage.However, she married my uncle who was an Episcopal minister and later became a Bishop.As a Bishop's wife she was kept very busy entertaining, speaking to Women's groups, counseling young married clergy wives and most of all being a support to my uncle. She always had an air of elegance about her and never lost her sense of humor.When my Uncle retired to Southern California they lived near the ocean.To her great delight she was able to go swimming everyday.I don't know where she found a bathsuit big enough but I remember it was black and made of some then cloth. I knew it was disrespectful but I really did think she looked like a large seal cruising slowly through the waves. In her later years she used a wheelchair to get around. I remember the time she was going by plane to New York and we took her to the airport. In those days they didn't have ramps to accomodate wheelchair passengers. They had a crane like apparatus that slowly hoisted the passenger, wheelchair and all, up to the door of the plane. So there she went, this very large woman ensconced in a wheelchair, who with elegant gestures bowed and blew kisses to those of us watching breathlessly below.In remembering her I wonder if she ever wished that her precocious niece whould ask her to play something by Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky instead of a song ridiculing a fat person. But, she always sang the song with a smile and a flourish. That is why she will always be My Aunt Elegant.

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