The Aunt Lill’s Roses Story

1959

Written in 2010 * 1,474 Words

it is a Lazaroff Family story

By Howard Yasgar

This true story happened in 1959.

I was 20 years old and at the time I was living in Westville, Connecticut.

At the time that the story about my Aunt Lillian’s roses took place, several things in my family were happening.

My Grandmother Molly Lazaroff was in a nursing home on Miami Beach.

My Grandfather Abraham Lazaroff who everyone called Eddy, was living alone in their condo on Miami Beach.

Every year Grandpa Eddy would fly to New Haven, to see his daughters and all his brothers and sisters.

This year my grandfather had a tough decision to make.

My Grandmother Molly, knowing Eddy would miss seeing all the family, she encouraged him to make the trip to New Haven by himself.

It was in the summer of 1959 that my grandfather flew to New Haven by himself, and he stayed in a small bedroom that we had in the attic of our home in Westville.

This story really begins when Grandpa Eddie first moved to Florida in the 1950’s, the entire Lazaroff family said Eddy was dragging his poor wife down to a horrible place, it was nothing more than a hot and swampy land, with lots of Palmetto bugs and mosquitoes.

They were probably right about the bugs and mosquitoes.

Every year I had to listen to the negative stuff everyone in the family said about my Grandfather Eddy. But I later came to realize that my grandfather was really a true visionary, he had always referred to Florida as the land of milk and honey.

It happened that my grandfather had moved to Florida before it became a popular thing to do.

Despite what the family said about him Grandpa Eddy said, “In Florida, the fruit grows everywhere, and it’s free for the taking and if you wanted to listen to live music or go dancing every night you can do it on Miami Beach for free”.

However, I could see everyone he spoke to in New Haven, thought that Grandpa was a little crazy.

So, for my grandfather to try and show everyone just how wonderful Florida really was, he started bringing a suitcase full of assorted tropical fruits when he flew up to New Haven each summer.

Most of the fruit was stuff that none of us in New Haven had ever seen before, and grandpa would lay them all out on our kitchen table for everyone’s inspection, then he would cut them up for us to taste.

He said they were Papaya, Mango, baby bananas, Coconuts, Dragon fruit, Lychees and lots of other fruits that no one had ever heard of.

Unfortunately, on this trip, by the time Grandpa got to New Haven, most of the fruit he brought had already ripened inside his hot suitcase, and everything was starting to rot, so everyone said that he probably found the fruit in someone’s garbage in Florida.

Poor Grandpa, I can now understand his frustration, with us, he wanted everyone to see the bounty he had available to him in Florida. But all the dumbbells in New Haven just couldn’t see it, and they all made fun of him behind his back.

It wasn’t my grandfather’s fault at all that the fruit was over ripe.

So now I’m sorry that no one listened to you Grandpa, please accept my apologies wherever you are.

In 1959 when Grandpa came to New Haven without his wife Molly, he stayed in our small attic room at our house in Westville.

He usually used a bicycle to get around and visit the other family members.

My Aunt Lillian, his youngest daughter said, “Grandpa always came by bicycle to visit her at her

home in Hamden Connecticut, where she lived with her husband Norman and their two sons Paul and Rodger.

Their pretty red home in Hamden was my Aunt Lillian’s pride and joy.

Grandpa’s ride to Lillian’s home on a bicycle was quite a trip from Westville, it was probably over 10 miles for him to get there.

So, when Grandpa Eddie visited Lillian’s home, he usually stayed at her house for at least a couple of days.

Back then, both my Aunt Lillian and my Uncle Norman worked every day, so I think it was very boring for Grandpa Eddie to just hang around their house and do nothing.

So, to keep busy Grandpa Eddie decided to do something nice for Lillian, he thought he could do some yard work for her.

My Uncle Norman worked for the Post Office, and he came home early one day.

Grandpa Eddie told Norman about his intentions to trim the shrubbery around the house. Norman who was an easy going and friendly guy said, “Sure Pop do whatever you want.”

So, Grandpa Eddie went out and trimmed all the rose bushes around the house. Rose bushes that

My Aunt Lillian planted many years ago.

Grandpa Eddie thought that just like in Florida, the rose bushes would quickly grow back in thirty days.

When Lillian returned home from work, she was very tired from working all day, and guess what the first thing she saw.

It was her beautiful rose bushes cut down to a nubbin, Roses that had taken ten years to grow.

She was horrified, she said that after all her years of hard work, everything was now gone, and boy, she was mad as hell at her father, my Grandpa Eddy.

Grandpa Eddie was mystified, he didn't see that he had done anything wrong, and no matter what he said to her, Lillian screamed louder at him, there was nothing he could say that would appease her.

That night, Grandpa Eddie took his bike to a neighbor’s home where he slept outside on their lawn under a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The next morning, he returned to Lillian’s house and tried to talk to her again.

He apologized again, but it did no good, Lillian just wouldn’t stop yelling, so my Grandpa Eddy got on his bicycle, and rode it 10 miles, all the way back to our house in Westville.

By the time he arrived at our house, Grandpa didn't look so good, he was pale, and sweating profusely, and he wouldn’t eat or drink anything.

Mom, who was a registered nurse, became very concerned, she thought Grandpa might be having a heart attack or possibly on the verge of dying.

I wasn’t home at the time, but Lillian later said that my mother called an ambulance and they took grandpa to the Grace New Haven Hospital emergency room.

Aunt Lillian told me that my mother said that when Grandpa Eddie was put in the ambulance, he was acting delirious and singing songs.

By the time I got home that evening, they had all returned from the hospital and they had determined Grandpa Eddie was not having a heart attack, and he was now asleep in my mom and dad’s bedroom.

My mother, being a registered nurse, was diligently checking on Grandpa every few minutes, but by the second day my grandfather was looking no better, he just kept asking everyone to let him go back home to Florida.

I could see this was becoming a serious dilemma for my parents, and I heard my mother on the phone, she felt that my grandpa might die any minute.

That evening, Mom, Pop and I sat in the kitchen while they discussed what to do with my grandfather. They knew that he was certainly in no condition to be traveling to Florida by himself.

We all knew that returning him to Florida was not an easy task, it meant driving him seventy miles to the airport in New York City, after that he would have to somehow stand in line to get a ticket on the night owl flight to Miami.

Then, once in Florida, how would he ever get to his home on Miami Beach. The whole situation was becoming very complicated, because everyone thought Grandpa could die at any moment.

My mother and father didn’t know what the right thing to do was, and my Grandpa Eddie kept pleading with us to let him go home to Florida.

That’s when my mom and dad asked me if I would take grandpa home to Florida, mom said, “Grandpa needs someone to be with him, and help him, but the way he looked now, it was possible he might expire on the trip home”.

What could I possibly say, so I said yes, I would do it.

Mom then told me, that if something should happen to grandpa on the way to Florida, I shouldn't be scared, she said, “Just tell the stewardess what happened and they would know what to do”, so I agreed to do it.

That night I packed my suitcase and mom packed Grandpa's suitcase, and I helped him down the stairs and into our car.

Dad drove us to the airport in New York, and my mom had already confirmed by phone that 2 of the $69.00 night owl tickets to Florida were available.

Grandpa and I boarded the plane, inside it was nearly empty, so we took seats over a wing with my grandfather sitting next to a window, and me sitting next to him.

For the first hour of the flight, Grandpa said little or nothing, every so often I looked at him, and he looked terrible. After about an hour and a half into the flight, grandpa turned to me and he said, “I smell Florida”, that was when I got really scared, I thought he might be getting delusional just before dying.

But I watched as my grandpa appeared more alert, he kept sniffing the air in the plane, and by the time the plane landed in Miami, he was acting as if nothing had ever happened to him.

He was happy, jovial as we both walked out of the Pan Am terminal building and onto 36th street in Miami, carrying our suitcases.

We walked across 36th Street to a car rental lot, it was about four in the morning, and my grandfather then rented a brand new 1959 blue Chevrolet, which he let me drive all the way to his home on Miami Beach.

I never once heard Grandpa mention even one word regarding the problems he had with Aunt Lillian or her rose bushes.

But when I returned to New Haven, I learned that my Aunt Lillian had not forgotten about Grandpa and her rose bushes, and as crazy as it sounds, many years later she still got mad at Grandpa whenever the subject of Roses came up.

Grandpa Eddie passed away in February of 1970. Now many years have passed, and I still occasionally ask Aunt Lillian about her rose bushes. She says she is no longer angry at Grandpa but I’m not so sure I believe her.

Aunt Lillian passed away in 2025, she was 102 years old.