WASHINGTON, D.C., July 4, 2019 — My cousin Patricia Elliott Horsford, who lives in New York, just sent me this photo of my Aunt Maria Elliott Forbes enjoying a Fourth of July outing in Brooklyn, New York, where she is staying with Patricia’s sister, Norma Elliott, who grew up with Aunt Maria in Nassau. Aunt Maria spent almost all of the winter months, when it’s bitterly cold in New York, with my cousin Leonadette Ross King in Nassau, but she is now back in New York for the summer months.
Aunt Maria is a retired teacher and she and Leonardette’s mother, my late cousin Sylvia Elliott Ross, who was also a career educator, grew up like sisters at Stanyard Creek, Andros, and began their teaching careers at Stanyard Creek, Andros All-Age School as monitors.
Aunt Maria is the youngest daughter of my late grandparents Benjamin and Mabel Elliott of Stanyard Creek. Cousin Sylvia was the daughter of Papa and Mama’s eldest child, Clarence Elliott Sr., who moved to New York in the 1940s; hence, the reasons why Patricia, Norma and four other siblings – the late Clarence Jr., the late Sandra Elliott Coleman, Mabel Elliott (who lives in South Carolina) and Alfred Elliott (who lives in Virginia) — were all born in New York.
I have told the story on many previous occasions about what a closely-knit family we are – my late mother, Violet Elliott Brown, was Papa and Mama’s eldest daughter and their second child – and Aunt Maria and Cousin Sylvia were very much involved in my upbringing during my adolescence. If I must say so myself, I think they did a pretty good job. So it is wonderful to see Aunt Maria looking so great. May the Good Lord continue to bless her.
