Aunt Ettie

Jun 5

I’ve been thinking about my grandma Dora’s sister, my great aunt Ettie, a lot lately. She lived in Miami, lost her husband early, never had children and was the only grown-up to ever greet us kids by throwing her arms over her head and shrieking while running barefoot to meet our car in her driveway (wearing some iteration of lime green check cigarette pants with a floral top) and inevitably leaving coral lipstick stains on our cheeks and our ears full of adoring yiddish exclamations. She was the fun one. Aunt Ettie had beaded fruit in a bowl on her kitchen table that we’d pretend to eat and strands of beads hanging from her interior doorways, which felt downright exotic to five year old me. Perennially Miami Beach tan, Ettie’s teased bottle blonde hair was coiffed into a 60’s do deep into the 1970’s, and honestly, the gap between her two front teeth was the only sign that she belonged to our family. She is the inspiration behind my newest venture, something I am excited to share with you all first, very soon. But for now, I keep seeing pieces that could have been plucked straight from Ettie’s closet and think she’d be thrilled to know that she hasn’t gone out of style.