A Century and Change
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began. George Bernard Shaw’s Candida premiered, Ty Cobb made his professional baseball debut, the ice cream cone was invented, and the United States hosted its first Olympic Games. That year Dutch troops occupied Sumatra, the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed, construction began on Grand Central Station, Wilbur Wright made his first flight, the New York City Subway opened, St. Louis police began the practice of using fingerprints in criminal investigations, and Cy Young pitched a no-hitter.
Into that world, my great-grandmother, Bertina Renier, was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, one of a dozen siblings in a Catholic family of French Cajuns. Eventually she would marry, and two of her brothers-in-law would marry two of her sisters. Great-grandma Bertina and her husband Rene, who died at age 76 back in 1976, had three sons and two daughters, including my maternal grandfather, Russel Renier, who moved as a teenager to California, the rest of the family eventually following him. He is responsible for two of Bertina’s fourteen grandchildren. She lived to see 22 great-grandkids and one great-great grandchild.
She died today at 105, an age at which condolences are no longer necessary, because we should all be so lucky.
May she rest in peace.
wow. that’s incredible.
— razib · Jun 28, 06:53 AM · #
I’ve no doubt she’s pleased with this memorial, Conor. We should all be so lucky to be so well remembered.
— Tony Comstock · Jun 28, 11:59 AM · #
That’s awesome. And what a century and change to see. Thanks for sharing.
— Walker Frost · Jun 28, 12:21 PM · #
That’s a beautiful tribute, Conor.
— Noah Millman · Jun 28, 12:35 PM · #
Noah beat me to it; we should all be so lucky to be remembered that way some day. My paternal grandmother died a year-and-a-half ago just a few days shy of her 99th birthday (having also lost her husband in the 70s) and I had many of the same thoughts.
Here’s a mind-blowing one for you: as an extremely rough estimate, say human civilization is about 5,000 years old. Your great-grandmother was alive for just over 2% of it; line up just 50 women of their age – each born the year the previous died – and who have a continuous line back to the earliest Pharaohs.
— Tom Meyer · Jun 28, 07:03 PM · #
wow. God bless her. her grand-kids and great grandkids might’ve been part of the secret of keeping her youthful for so long
— JCB · Jun 28, 07:50 PM · #
Thanks for the post. Since my work is about our grandmothers’ generation living through hard times, I’m convinced that words are the best way to remember these people—or to remember anybody. And those men and women were experts in survival.
— Shelley · Jun 28, 10:34 PM · #
Thank you Conor, that was a beautiful piece of writing.
May she rest in peace.
— Bryan · Jun 29, 03:53 AM · #
That was a lovely piece to share, Conor. A wonderful tribute for whom I am sure was a wonderful woman.
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Your great-grandma sounds like she would have been a fascinating person. My grandmother died in ’99 at the age of 95. We do not listen enough to the elderly.
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