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Alice Hilda Hart, "Auntee Alice", 1908-2005

We lost Alice in this world at the age of 97 on Friday December 23rd, 2005. She was born in Ireland in 1908. Her mother was a school teacher and her father a mechanic. They imigrated to the United States when she was very young. After initially settling in Aurora Illinois where my father was born, the family moved to Detroit Michigan.

Alice married and with her husband had a house built in Detroit for about $5000 in the 1940's. I never met Alice's husband Harry who died young of a heart ailment. Alice took a job at General Motors where she worked for many years as a secretary with a design group at the GM Tech Center. She often recalled the special going away party that was thrown for her when she retired in the mid 1970's.

As a young child I remember the excitement of getting to stay at her house overnight, and the treats that she would frequently bring over. As a GM employee, she got a good discount on cars and every few years there was excitement when she arrived in the brand new Chevrolet Impala.

Alice played an especially important role in our family since my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 7 years old and after an extended hospital stay died in November of 1963, a few weeks ahead of the JFK assasination. She was kind of the combination of the cool aunt and substitute mom.

I was the middle of 3 boys. Each of us in seniority ranking got to go on a vacation with Alice to Florida. My turn was when I was 11 years old. I got to skip a week of Catholic school during the winter of 1966 and experience my first trip on a jet.

I remember getting paid good money to paint Alice's garage. When I was 18 and a bit troubled she gave me several hundred dollars to buy a car when I needed one with the condition that my father (her brother) not be told.

In the mid 1970's I moved to California and Alice to Florida. Alice travelled extensively in Asia in the late 1970's until about 1990 with my brother Bob as well as visting him in Australia. She often visited California for extended stays.

Around 1992 or 1993 Alice gave me a stack of savings bonds with my name on them that she had been buying via payroll deductions during her employment at GM from the early 1960's through 1973. These made buying the house in Hayward in 1994 possible.

Alice was almost always part of the Christmas experience both back in Detroit and during visits to Califonia each year that usually started before Thanksgiving and continued through to January. Part of the California holiday ritual was that Alice always went along to make the final decision on which Christmas tree we took home and then she managed the decoration process. The summer visit usually included baking my birthday cake.

Alice especially enjoyed time spent with LuckyDog and Mummadog during her California visits which continued until she was about 92 years old. It was about that time that her serious health problems began. I helped move her into the Merrill Gardens assisted living center about 3 years ago and visited there several times during the last few years. She was able to keep her own apartment right up to the end but often lamented about not being able to visit California or drive her car to the beach or the mall.

Alice was a special person in my life. Goodbye Alice.