Today
marks the 2-year anniversary of my Grandma Rise’s death. In honor of that
anniversary, I want to share the story of one of Grandma’s sisters, Maria
Amelia, who died too young, but left an impression on my Grandma.
Maria
Amelia DeTevis was a young, beautiful 17-year-old when she got married in Las
Vegas to Simon Bustamante. Thinking back more than 70 years, my Grandma
remembered her younger sister’s wedding dress, and a horse-drawn carriage. She
said the wedding was a big deal in town, and was mentioned in the newspaper. My
Grandma said she was closest to her sister, Amelia.
Soon
after the September wedding, the worst kind of tragedy struck the young bride.
On Oct. 25, 1941, as my Grandma recalled, her sister’s husband went to get what
he thought was kerosene. But it was really gasoline. When Amelia lit a match,
the gasoline exploded and she died as a result of the fire.
My
Grandma didn’t tell me much more than that, other than emphasizing how
beautiful her sister was. She told me there was a photo of her on her headstone
in the Las Vegas cemetery. During my next trip to Las Vegas, I located the
headstone and snapped a photo. I didn’t show my Grandma, because I wanted to
wait until I wrote about it. But I waited too long.
My
Grandma married my Grandpa Carlos only a few months after that terrible tragedy
– on March 14, 1942. The timing was terrible because the family was still in
mourning over the death of Amelia. But I assume it was unavoidable because my
Grandpa was preparing to head overseas to fight in World War II. He and his
brothers had to leave their training in Texas to attend the wedding in Las
Vegas.
Since
the family was in mourning, my Grandma didn’t get the horse-drawn carriage and
the big, fancy wedding, though she didn’t express any regrets to me. The one
thing that bothered her was that her mother-in-law took a lot of the food that
was meant for the wedding and used it for another family event scheduled the
next day. My Grandma recalled the bridal party having to scrounge for bread and
meat for some sandwiches the night of the wedding.
Despite
the circumstances, my Grandpa remembered her own wedding fondly. She had a
large family with many sisters, but it made me wonder how she really felt at
the time after losing her closest sister. I know they had to deal with many
hardships back then. Still, it’s difficult to comprehend. I only wish I could
have shared that photo of the headstone with her. I know she would have said,
again, how beautiful her sister was.
What a sad and wonderful story! People's lives were often hard, and they were not strangers to tragedy, but I usually found that my older relatives remembered their younger days with great fondness.
ReplyDelete