A Grandmother's Love
Diane Rosenbauer, 61, of Center Township cherished a Christmas doll from her grandmother so much, she named it after her.
Her doll, called “Susie” after her grandmother, Susan Opryshka, is still on display at her home.
Growing up in Binghamton, N.Y., Rosenbauer lived about five houses down from her grandmother.
Rosenbauer and her cousins often visited their grandmother and she and her brother made sure to stop by after church on Sundays.
“My brother would go home and I would stay there and talk with her for hours on Sunday morning, that was one of my favorite things,” she said.
Each grandchild usually received a sensible present such as new school clothes, Rosenbauer said.
Employed at a shoe factory, her grandmother was quite frugal and practical, Rosenbauer said.
“My grandma had no phone, no car, and she walked 1.8 miles every single day to the factory to do piecework,” she said. “I just really admired her, that she had so much courage and stamina and persistence to keep working at a very hard life for her family.”
At one point, Rosenbauer's grandmother decided that each child would receive one toy from her: dolls for the girls and footballs for the boys.“She came from when times were poor, her kids didn't have a lot of toys,” she said. “They got something simple for Christmas and she carried that through to our generation.”For Christmas in 1953, Rosenbauer got a lifelike rubber baby doll complete with a bottle and a device inside that made the doll cry when rocked.The original outfit has been lost, but Rosenbauer replaced it with a more meaningful dress.“When my daughter was a baby, she got all kinds of little dresses and I didn't use them very long, she grew so fast,” said Rosenbauer, who put the doll in a tiny knit dress outgrown by her daughter, Lara.She lovingly played with the doll for years and it is the only one of her childhood dolls that remains.“It was sort of an extension of my love for my grandma,” said Rosenbauer.” The doll was special to me and I guess, in my mind, I said I would keep it forever.”
