The Big E – Emeralds

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224 – October, 2025

By Elaine Lessig

I was raised in a tightly knit family. A sister and a brother born to my maternal grandparents married a brother and sister born to my paternal grandparents. In the forties, this was not as unusual as you might think. Young adults went out with the friends of their siblings. Like my parents, they fell in love. Eventually, one couple married. Soon after, the other couple married, too. That, obviously, created a very close family group. Both sides were the same. I grew up with all female first cousins. We always celebrated holidays, birthdays, and larger family occasions together. Meeting for Chinese food dinners on Sundays was a family favorite. My parents dressed my older sister and me in matching clothes when we were together. Both of us hated that. My sister’s face in all the family photos made that quite clear. I kept my opinion to myself.

Life, as it does, changes. When I was six, my paternal grandmother, Molly, died unexpectedly. My grandfather chose to move further away to live with his relatives. Soon thereafter, my aunt and uncle moved to Connecticut to start a new business. Our maternal grandparents regularly drove out to Long Island to visit us. Going to their apartment in the city was always fun. They lived close to Yankee Stadium where my father had access to box seats behind the Yankees’ dugout. When an extra seat was available, I would go to the game with my Grandpa Martin and father. My mother and Grandma would spend the day together–going to lunch and doing some shopping. By that time my sister preferred to stay with her teenage friends. Often, I got to be with my grandparents on weekends when my parents had “adult things” to do. Sleeping on the pullout sofa and eating Grandma Gertie’s delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast was a treat beyond compare.

Click here to read the complete article
224 – October, 2025

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