Gertrude Mirto-Tervenski
by Brian Tervenski
Gertrude Mirto Tervenski, was born in 1919 in Poughkeepsie, NY, the seventh of eight children, to Carlo and Frances Mirto.
Gertrude Tervenski was a woman of the Great Generation. She survived the depression and World War II, and the excesses and tribulations of the years that followed and through hard work and courage. She was the smallest child in the family. They named her Gertrude but for the first years of her life they often called her Fanny, the name of her sister who had died in childbirth a year earlier. To the world she appeared to be a plain unremarkable small child but she was full of talent and intelligence and love of adventure. And she was tough - an indomitable will and stamina unsuspected in one so small. She loved to read. She devoured library book after book but this was frowned on in a house that saw little value in education for women. She excelled at the piano and sang so well that at sixteen she won a talent contest and was offered the opportunity to tour. This was not considered a possibility by her mother . Her older sister Josie and older brother Sam monitored her social life. She showed athletic talent. Her mother thought playing tennis was exotic and forbade her the game. At sixteen she quit high school and went to work in the Poughkeepsie garment industry sewing raincoats. Each week she turned her check over to the family and remained a dutiful child. But a child limited by family traditions. She was loved, well cared for. There was no malice or abuse in any of this. It was how good Italian girls were expected to behave. She was a valued member of her family and lacked the confidence to rebel that some of her siblings developed. She had a close circle of friends and family, and she grew into a woman who wanted her independence and marriage was the way out of the house. In 1942 she married Sal Vegeto and in 1944 she gave birth to a son who she named Brian. A year later she was divorced and Sal gave up his wife and son for card games and other women. She moved back home to Nana and Pop and went back to work sewing pocket books in the booming factories on Garden Street. Three years later she met Lou Tervenski and they were married. They had a daughter, Sharon, and started on the road to the Middle Class. From an apartment over the Brown Derby they moved to the Smith Street Projects and then rented on Worrall Avenue next door to Nana. Lou was hired at IBM. They saved and bought a house on Pendell Road across the street from the college. Aunt Gert got a part time job there and she and Louie took in students as lodgers. Brian and Sharon graduated from college. She taught them through her sacrifice to love others, never to hate, to believe in equality, to work untiringly, to laugh with joy, to read books and talk about ideas, never to lose faith, to get up after you fall. After my grandmother died, Aunt Gert took the mantle of family Matriarch. "The house" was now at 72 Pendell Road. Sunday dinner and holiday celebrations were hosted there. Over the years Aunts and Uncles and cousins who needed help lived at my mother’s house for periods of time. The traditions of family were carrried on. And then they were proud grandparents, Nana and Pop whose love and generosity could never do enough for their children’s children, bought a large above ground pool in the yard that my father, Louie, tended. The kids loved it and the summer parties and barbeques sometimes included forty family members, and card games gave way to horseshoes and lawn games. In retirement, Gertrude and Louis were dedicated to their grandchildren and to their nieces, Michelle and Traci and spent many happy hours with them. Gert was a member of Holy Trinity Church, The Polish Club and Woman's Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Louis died at Christmas time in 1995. Gert, 89 years old , died Election Day November 4, 2008. Both Gert and Louis are buried at Saint Peters Cemetery, in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. |
The other day I heard and old Sinatra song and thought about the house, the family. And there used to be a ballpark
where the field was warm and green And the people played their crazy game with a joy I’d never seen And the air was such a wonder from the hot dogs and the beer Yes there used to be a ballpark right here And there used to be rock candy And a great big Fourth of July With the fireworks exploding all across the summer sky And the people watched in wonder how they’d laugh and how they’d cheer And there used to be a ballpark right here Now the children try to find it And they can’t believe their eyes ` cause the old team just isn’t playing and the new team hardly tries And the sky has gotten so cloudy When it used to be so clear Yes there used to be a ballpark right here by Joe Raposa |