The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

one that she carried in her purse,
and one she kept tied to her leg
under her dress.”
Nancy recalls going to the
store once when her grandmother
Bertha had to tap the
second bank.
“She lifted up her skirt and
dress and she had a zippered
pocket in her petticoat.” When
Bertha got older, she suffered
from hardening of the arteries.
The malady affected her eyesight,
but she blamed the condition
on her German doctors who
had come to the United States
after World War II. She was a
great believer in the supernatural,
as are many in this family.
“When she wanted to see
me, she would put it in her mind
that she wanted to see me, and I
would always show up at her
house,” Nancy says. “If she had
something to do with me or
needed me, she would call me
through her mind and I would
go and see her.”
In 1967, Bertha was hospitalized
for her arterial condition
in Monroe County Hospital in
Rochester. She died after a short
stay. She lived to be 89 years old.
A penny-watcher to the
end, just prior to her death
Bertha purchased a plot in
Mount Hope Cemetery in the
name of her daughter Cecilia.
Cecilia once told Nancy this
story, saying Bertha did this for
fear her other daughters, whom
Bertha did not trust, would make
off with her savings if they knew
she was dying. And she feared
that if this happened, she would
be buried in “pauper’s field,”
common slang of the time
referring to a cemetery for the
impoverished.
The story goes that after
Bertha died, her daughter Ella
went through her home and
found $500 cash that Bertha had
set aside for her own funeral.
Ella took the money, and as a
result, Bertha’s grave went
unmarked for many years.
Eventually, Ella had a nervous
breakdown and died. After Ella’s
death, Julie, Ella’s daughter,
supposedly found the cash
untouched in her mother’s
belongings. Julia, knowing the
family story, used the money to
buy Bertha a headstone.
~ 49 ~
The Callans and McClarys