Ellen Rutherford

I am sad today because Ellen is no longer available for a phone chat. Ellen was my girlhood friend. We met in 4th grade in the class of Miss Higgins, who was such a lovable teacher. I was jealous that Ellen had a special relationship with Miss Higgins because she would bring her books supplied by her mother the librarian. My mother was also a widow like Ellen’s mother and I stayed at school for lunch. I would eat my brown bag lunch, then go outside and just leave the playground to walk the block to Ellen’s house where I was welcomed by Ellen and her grandmother. We stayed good friends through 8th grade, where we were both somewhat reluctantly in the “popular” group. We were both smart kids. I moved a little further away after graduation, went to Alvernia High School, and didn’t keep in touch with the grade school crowd. I didn’t see Ellen again until our 10-year St. Angela reunion where she recognized me by my voice because I had changed a lot. Ellen found me again, on Facebook, some years ago and we started to have periodic phone chats. Ellen told me about all the intervening years, both the good and the bad. A few years ago I came to Chicago and took her to see my cousin in a community theater production of Catch Me If You Can. We had such fun that day. Our phone chats had become more frequent after Bill died and Ellen moved to the assisted living facility. I just talked to her last about a month ago so I was shocked to hear that she had passed away. I liked hearing the stories of her triumphs in Jeopardy at the facility against an arch rival there. Ellen was always a smart cookie. She liked to talk politics with me because she knew I was sympathetic to her liberal leanings. Ellen was funny and intelligent and upbeat through all the tribulations she endured. I’m sorry I won’t be able to be in Chicago for her service. I hope these words might help her family in some small way. I never had any contact information for any of her family, just Ellen herself, so this is my only way to share my thoughts with them. Ellen will certainly be missed by family and friends. It’s so sad that her grandchildren will not have her in their lives going forward. Here are some words that have helped me in the past.

Tears can heal;
Memories can comfort;
Love lives on forever.

Erin Moorhead Bosch
Madison, WI.