Two Sisters and Two Brothers

I wrote about my father's parents recently, and today I am tackling my mother's parents. My mother's mother died when I was in high school, and I was crushed. My grandfather had died much earlier. David Bassist died in 1970 at age 73, when I was just 5, and I don't remember him at all. He lived in Austin, and I know I saw him because I have seen a picture of him holding me. He owned an alcohol store in Elgin, Texas, just outside of Austin.

My grandmother, Marie Sternberger Bassist, was a really cool person! Well, to me she was, as she was the housemother at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at the University of Texas, which to her high school age grandson was quite cool indeed. She was born in Brownsville, Tennessee. She died when I was a senior in high school in February, 1983 at age 74. I saw her often, both in Houston and in Austin. One of my favorite times to see her was in November of 1981. I was a junior in high school, and I brought a good friend of mine, then Shelly Rose, with me to Austin for Pat O'Briens, a big weekend at UT for ZBT. I remember Grandmommy taking us to dinner and being so happy to see me with such a kind and beautiful date. I was shocked when she died, but I was glad to know that she died in her sleep very quickly and without suffering.

Here, both of my grandparents were with me on my first Thanksgiving in 1965:

Here, they are together with me a bit later:

One of the neatest things about my grandparents is that their siblings got married after meeting each other. Harry Bassist was quite a bit younger than his brother. He died young too, passing away in 1973 at the age of just 66. I don't remember him well, as I was just 7 when he died, but I did get to see him because he lived in Houston. His wife, Amy Sternberger Bassist, my grandmother's younger sister, was truly one of the most special people in my life. My wife agrees! I knew Amy very well, as she passed away in late 2009 at the age of 96. My children were fortunate to know her well too.

Aunt Amy was like a grandmother to me for the 26 years after her sister, my grandmother, died. She had a long time of being a widow, but she chose to not be alone. A boyfriend of hers died. There was a lot more to her life than just relationships with men. She worked for many years at Walter Pye's, a clothing store in the Meyerland area. Walter Pye was a relative of hers, and Walter Pye, Jr. was running the store when Aunt Amy was working there. Late in her life, she volunteered at the Holocaust Museum of Houston, working at the front desk. I visited her there.

I learned so much about life from the way Aunt Amy lived hers. She never said no to an invitation. Dinner? Yes! A ride? Yes! She spend a lot of time with her friends and our family, and she worked hard. We were very close. She actually came to Chicago for my graduation from Northwestern University in 1986:

Amy and Harry had two children. Their sons were Harry Jr. and Philip, who died in 2018 at age 74, was adopted. His situation was like mine. He was adopted as a first child. I never understood why there was so much friction between him and the rest of the family, but I can guess he wasn't the cause of it. I don't recall Aunt Amy every saying anything negative about him at all. I knew his wife, Ruth, and two children and saw them growing up. I am close to his daughter, who is named Amy (Amy Bassist Dodd). My son and I had dinner with Amy in Denver. Fran and I tried to visit her rather, Philip, in Idaho Springs without having planned it, but we couldn't find him. Amy shared this picture of her family, which includes her brother Philip, taken I guess in 1975:

While I didn't really know my grandfather, I knew my grandmother very well. Two brothers marrying two sisters. Rare and very interesting! It worked out well for me!!!