Family members are pictured at the home of my cousin Mabel Elliott-Moultrie and her husband Lee Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina, where they are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. Seated from left cousin Patricia Elliott Horsford, cousin Mabel Elliott-Moultrie, and Aunt Maria Elliott Forbes. Standing are cousin Leonaardette Ross-King and cousin Norma Elliott.
By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 20, 2018 — My Aunt Maria Elliott Forbes, who now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her niece Norma Elliott, is spending the Thanksgiving holiday in Charleston, South Carolina, with another one of her nieces, Mabel Elliott-Moultrie, and her husband Lee. The occasion is almost like a mini-family reunion. Also in Charleston for Thanksgiving are my cousin Patricia Elliott Horsford, who lives in Harlem, New York, and my cousin Leonardette Ross-King, who lives in Cat Island with her husband Danny King.
Norma, Mabel and Patricia are children of my late Uncle Clarence Elliott, Aunt Maria’s brother, who established the homestead through Paul Meeres Corner (Fleming Street) in Nassau before he relocated to New York, where he lived for practically the rest of his life. The Fleming Street house, opposite the now-closed Keith’s Chicken In the Bag take-out “restaurant”, is where our family lived after we moved from Stanyard Creek, Andros.
Leonardette is daughter of my late cousin Sylvia Elliott Ross, another one of Uncle Clarence’s children; however, I grew up calling her Aunt Sylvia because she and Aunt Maria were around the same age when I was growing up at Stanyard Creek with my grandparents, Ben and Mabel Elliott. Both were very instrumental in the youthful development of the other six grandchildren who were raised by Papa and Mama.
In addition to “Aunt” Sylvia and myself, the other five grandchildren who spent our childhood years at Stanyard Creek were my sister the late Elthreada Brown McPhee, children of Ben and Mabel Elliott’s eldest daughter, Violet Elliott Brown; John Elliott (deceased), Beryl Elliott Young (deceased), and Agnes Elliott, who currently lives in Fresh Creek, Andros, children of my late uncle Israel Lee Elliott; and Alphonso “Boogaloo” Elliott, son of my late uncle Audley Elliott.
As I have noted on more than one occasion, we have a very closely knit family, and that’s reflected very much today in the fact that Aunt Maria now lives in New York with her niece Norma, who was born in New York but actually grew up in The Bahamas with Aunt Maria and still calls her “Mommy.”
Aunt Maria and “Aunt” Sylvia spent all of their working years as teachers, and when they both retired, every year they went on a cruise. After they had seen virtually all of the islands of the Caribbean, a couple years they took cruises to Mediterranean destinations, and I still have a t-shirt from Greece that Aunt Maria brought back for me one year.
When Aunt Maria’s health started to deteriorate, she moved in with her “sister”, Aunt Sylvia through Murphyville in Palmdale, where Leonardette, who was then teaching in Nassau, was able to assist in taking care of both Aunt Maria and her mother, “Aunt” Sylvia.
When “Aunt” Sylvia died several years ago, Norma subsequently arranged for Aunt Maria, who is not 90 years of age, to come and live with her New York.
So, I would like to wish them all an enjoyable Thanksgiving down in Charleston. Meanwhile, I shall be here in Washington, D.C., pulling as hard as I can for my beloved Washington Redskins to beat the Dallas Cowboys.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY.
