Irene Elizabeth “Betty” Trompak
April 13, 1929 – January 9, 2014
Every year before going to Uniontown Grandma would take us to get candy for the trip. We would get to buy whatever we wanted, even though it wasn’t a lot of money, it felt like we were on a shopping spree and able to buy everything our parents wouldn’t let us have. Another memory is the cousin sleepover at Grandma’s apartment where we go play bingo, swim, and play charades. It is a tradition us grandchildren still keep alive today. Grandma was always the most particular about church and holiday get togethers, it was always fun watching her get everything prepared. She would almost always give me the evil glare one of those holidays because I would do something wrong.
Favorite memory of Mom:
Favorite memories of Grandma:
One of my older memories with grandma was when she took my younger brother, Michael, and I to a playground near her apartment. We saw deer for the first time there, very close. It’s a simple, good memory of childhood with grandma and my brother.
Favorite memories of Grandma:
Growing up I would always enjoy the family traditions Grandma would be the center of, like Christmas Eve dinners where we would gather at her apartment for dinner then go to church; After church, we would go back to her apartment for gifts, cookies/treats, and carols – it was something that I would look forward to each year as a kid.
Once I was old enough, I would always help Grandma with decorating her house and tree for Christmas. Almost every ornament has a memory and story including a couple of ornaments from when she was young. The story goes that her house sat on top of a hill in Scranton. One Christmas, the tree caught on fire and her dad threw the tree down the hill. After the fire was out, her siblings and she would try to recover as many ornaments as possible. Fortunately, I now have those few old and broken ornaments and will always hear her repeat the story and say “they’re ugly and old; I don’t know why, but they will always be hung in the back of the tree.”
Grandma hosting cousin sleepovers at her apartment and taking us to the swimming pool in the complex. She would join us on trips to Sea World. The yearly trip to Uniontown, PA for the Mount St. Macrina Church Pilgrimage which was organized by Grandma. She would join us on trips to Sea World where the story of how I kept a piece of pork chop in my mouth during the whole car ride to sea world was created. It felt like she would tell that story about me to everyone.
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