Elwy LaSenius Rousseau was my great-aunt. She and my grandmother (Eunice) were sisters, just four years apart. My grandmother was the oldest of their siblings, and Elwy was second oldest. Three more sisters and one brother would be born after they were.
When remembering life events from the 20th century, it’s easy to figure out how old Elwy and Eunice were at a particular time. My grandmother Eunice was born in 1898 and Elwy was born in 1902. So my grandmother was always two years older than the current year, and Elwy was always two years younger than the current year.
If I wanted to know how old they were when people first walked on the moon, for example, that was a piece of cake. The moon landing was 1969, so my grandmother was 69+2=71 and Elwy was 69-2=67. In reflecting on memories and old photos, I like to get a sense of how old family members were at a particular time. For these two, it’s always easy to figure out.
Elwy was born in Michigan to Scandinavian parents, Franz and Emma Louise Lassenius (later LaSenius). Elwy moved with her mom and siblings to Florida. Her father died in Michigan. By the time I came along, Elwy was living in West Palm Beach and working as a head nurse in a hospital. I still remember her visiting when I was little, and she wore a white nurse’s dress, white stockings, and thick white shoes.
Elwy lived alone in an apartment but was surrounded by kind neighbors and good friends. By the time I was born, her one daughter, Frances, was already grown. Elwy’s husband was in a long-term care facility and mentally unwell. He died when I was 10. I never met him, and she never talked about his illness. I can imagine that was a painful situation for her. It wasn’t till I was older that my mom told me about that difficult situation, and she asked that I not ever bring it up with Elwy. I never knew whether or not Elwy and her husband were still married when he was in long-term care, and I didn’t ask. Back in those days, things weren’t talked about like they are today.
Despite those difficulties, Aunt Elwy had a cheerful outlook on life and loved to laugh. I remember her wonderful sense of humor and light-heartedness. She embraced me with all my crazy childhood antics. Even when I became a sometimes moody teen, she accepted me and was very kind. I went through a phase where I didn’t want my mom grilling me with questions when I came home from school. Aunt Elwy was visiting and caught onto that. She wrote me a letter soon after, asking some questions, and then she said, “I know I’m asking questions. It’s okay not to answer.” The memory of her words makes me smile today. What an amazing heart towards a pouty teen.
Even though she lived in West Palm Beach and I was in Miami (about an hour-and-a-half drive, maybe more with traffic), Aunt Elwy was very much a part of my childhood. She would often visit us in Miami, and whenever we would drive to Jensen Beach to visit my dad’s mom, we would always stop on the way and have dinner with Aunt Elwy at Captain Alex’s seafood restaurant in West Palm Beach. I always looked forward to those dinners together. Sometimes I’d visit her for a few days without my parents. Either I’d ride home with her from Miami, or sometimes my folks would put me on the Greyhound Bus. Whenever I arrived, the first thing Elwy would do was take me to Carvel for “flying saucers” mint ice cream cookies.
Elwy enjoyed the craft of latch hooking. She made rugs, piano bench covers, and wall hangings by latch hook. She even got me started making my first (and only) latch hook rug. What seemed to take me forever to finish, she did quickly, and her designs were elaborate and pretty. Her apartment was filled with these rugs and latch hook decorations, and she would gift them to others. It was something she enjoyed in her time off.
She liked to mark the years and events of my life by sending me first-day cover stamps and envelopes, along with collector plates that commemorated various cultural events. She knew I was very interested in history and culture, and the collector items were a keepsake of those moments. She was visiting us during the royal wedding of Diana and Charles, and she was as caught up in it as I was. I have a feeling she shared that love of culture and history with me. No matter her age, she always stayed up with the times and embraced each new era.
After we moved to Orlando, which was a little further away, she still visited us. I was a teen by then, and she was retired from nursing. She had a good friend, Adelaide, who always made the trip with her. Adelaide was a hoot. Where Elwy’s sense of humor was quieter, Adelaide was a roll-on-the-floor hollering-in-laughter type of gal. I enjoyed it whenever the two of them came to visit.
On one of their visits, we had freezing weather in Orlando, 19 degrees. Our power went off and on. As we huddled with blankets, my main concern was to keep the fish alive in my aquarium, what with the tank heater and pump going out all the time. It was a memorable time for sure, and yes, all fish survived. A month or two after that, my mom and I went to West Palm to visit Elwy, which included dinner out with Adelaide. They had an insane amount of rain, wind, and flooding during our trip, nine inches of rapidly moving water on the roads. Adelaide told us, “I won’t say another word about 19 degrees if you don’t say anything about nine inches of rain.”
Aunt Elwy was there for me when I was first learning to drive. My mom and I were visiting her in West Palm. I was new to highway driving, and my mom was going to let me take the first leg of the drive home on the Florida Turnpike. This was my first time starting out on a drive. Normally, my mom would drive first, and then we would switch, with the engine running. I wasn’t too adept at starting a car. Well, I flooded the engine of my mom’s Pontiac Phoenix. I ended up taking a Greyhound Bus back to Orlando, while my mom stayed in Palm Beach to get the car repaired. I was mortified, but Aunt Elwy helped me know that these things happened. She wouldn’t let me leave until I felt assured it was not the end of the world.
I was never big on cooking, but I always enjoyed helping my great-aunts make desserts at holiday time. On a Thanksgiving visit to West Palm, I was helping Elwy prepare pies for a family gathering. We doubled the recipe to make enough pies, but we forgot to double the spices. We didn’t realize what had happened till we sampled one of the finished pies. We laughed a long time about that. It wasn’t so bad, though. Just like eating plain pumpkin. No biggie. Our bland pies definitely got eaten.
Elwy enjoyed seafood, especially going to seafood restaurants that overlooked the water. She and I shared that in common. We both loved to eat flounder, and we both enjoyed a nice water dining view. We also shared a fondness for Mexican cuisine. Whenever we would visit her in Palm Beach, she would always take us to a seafood place on the water. When she would come to Orlando, we would end up celebrating at my favorite Mexican restaurant.
One of my most amazing memories of Elwy (and my mom) was when Elwy wasn’t even home. Elwy’s daughter, Frances, lived in Whittier, California. After Elwy retired, she would often travel out to stay with Frances for a few months at a time. During my junior year in high school, I really wanted to go to the beach for spring break. My mom brought my niece and me to West Palm to stay in Elwy’s apartment while she was away. (My niece is only four years younger than I am, so she was in junior high.) I thought that was so kind of Elwy to let us stay there, fairly near the beach, and amazing of my mom to give us that trip.
The last two days, my mom surprised us even more by letting us know she had booked us in a hotel right on the beach. It was so very kind of both of them to offer two teens such a wonderful spring break experience. We had such a great time that I remember it to this day.
Aunt Elwy wrote me letters often, encouraging me, investing in my life, and I always wrote back right away. She would often recap milestones in my life. For example, “This month, you had your big senior year piano recital.” “This month, you voted for the first time” and reminded me who I voted for.
When I was a freshman in college, things were rough for me. Elwy knew that, and so she insisted that I call her once a week at least, and more often if I needed to talk. I took her up on that, and she really shone a light into my life at a difficult time. We continued to correspond, whether by mail or phone, till the time of her death two years after I graduated from college.
From what I heard from my mom and others, Elwy was a wonderful nurse, very compassionate, making sure all her patients had the care and attention they needed. She was very attentive to what others were going through and the details of their care. She was not one to let anything fall through the cracks. The fact that she was head nurse spoke volumes about her work ethic.
My mom said Elwy was also a good trainer of the younger nurses. She helped them get the hands-on learning they needed and always had their backs whenever things got tough. She cared about giving them the best experience they could get and encouraged them to flourish in their profession. She also advocated for them in getting better working conditions. Based on the way she was with me, I can imagine how attentive she was to everyone who crossed her path in the hospital.
In her last year or so, Elwy was finding it difficult to live alone. She moved to Orlando to live with my mom. During that time, she had a couple hospital stays. At one point, my mom was frustrated with the level of care, or lack thereof. She went to the nurses’ desk and told them, “Look, you’ve got a retired RN here who was a training nurse at her hospital. She took great care of so many young nurses just like you and helped them navigate their careers. Please show her the same respect and care she gave to others.” Hopefully, they didn’t see it as a complaint but as a positive reminder of what it means to be a nurse, something I know Elwy wore very well.
I always felt a strong connection to Elwy and that she really understood me. She was always a joy to be around. It didn’t surprise me when I came across one of her childhood photos, probably about second grade. I realized I looked just like her at the same age. Not a surprise at all. I’m not sure where that photo is these days, but if I ever find it, I’ll share it here. If you are part of the extended LaSenius family, I hope these reflections have helped you learn more about Elwy Lilah Floriz LaSenius Rousseau.
Exploring Generations 