Bouncing Betty

By Pete Kauffman -

When Mary was writing down her memories of 431 Hilltop Road last week, she got me thinking about our mother, Elizabeth or Betty as she was widely known,   Mary remembered when Mother climbed out the bathroom window when she was accidently locked in.   Here is a picture of the back of the house so you can see what climbing out the window entailed.  She was about 50 years old then.  (This is a picture of the house before we bought it so it looks filthy.)



Anyways, it was a good ten foot drop from that window.  Probably six feet if  you are hanging down the side of the sill.  But I wanted you to appreciate your great-grandmother.  She was quite a gal.  My friends called her "Bouncing Betty, the working mans friend!"  Not sure where that phrase came from, nor can I believe anyone told her that we called her that, but she knew!

Anyways I want to fast forward to about 1969.  Mother was now about 72.  She had throat cancer, from smoking.  They had treated her with radiation initially, some years earlier.  And as happened, the radiation caused more cancer, this time in her throat.  So, the doctors in Erie could not treat that and she decided to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for treatment.   I flew out with her and they admitted her.   I returned home the next day.  She wrote this poem that night and we found it in her papers.  Please do so.  She was quite a lady!


I have to add to this story a bit more.   After the surgery, she returned home and healed.   Several years later, we had moved to Fredrick, MD after completing our studies at Penn State.  She was living alone with Mrs King, her caregiver.   Unfortunately, the cancer returned and she flew back out to the Mayo Clinic.  This time, the surgery was even more radical.  After a week of convalescence as an outpatient, she had had enough and she decided to return to Erie on her own.  No one knew of this.  She flew back to Erie in the middle of winter by herself and took a taxi home, her bandages falling off and in bad shape.  But she had had enough and wanted to come home.  She was tough! 








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