Emily "Drezza" Tramonti - May 20, 1928 - August 21, 2022
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| Flops & Drez on a train in New Hampshire, 1983 |
I
spent most of the summer of 1985 living with Flops and Drezza, the
summer after we moved to NY, I wanted to be back in Rhode Island and
they welcomed me to stay at Vancouver Ave.
For a
few weeks I was Drezza's sidekick - went with her to do errands at
Almacs, Daves, Silvermans, for milkshakes and grilled cheese at Newport
Creamery, and to work - at Warwick Prescription Center, the small local
pharmacy she worked at for decades. I was 9, and she trusted me enough
to let me count actual pills for actual prescriptions. I typed the
labels on a real manual typewriter and put the warning stickers on. I
tried my absolute hardest to get everything right and I think I did. I
would charge her something like $3 a day for this work - kept track on
an envelope - and she paid me. What a racket.
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| Playing along with our house being an "inn" |
Then
she would take me to Thorpe's and I bought paperback books, Born Free
about the lioness. I'd play rummy and watch Jeopardy and Wheel of
Fortune with Flops and later after he went to bed watch Murder She Wrote
with Drez.
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| Flops & Drez watching Chris play basketball at Whitman |
It was around this time but
during the winter, holidays, Thanksgiving probably when Drez fell out of
her chair laughing at my impression of Flops' cousin Mary and Uncle
John. I will never forget it, she was laughing so hard she took a knee
and slapped the carpet in front of the puffy floral fabric covered chair
in the corner of her living room surrounded by Hummels. (Mary- "Uncle
Dick you are such a tease. If we look in the dictionary next to the word
'tease' would be a picture of Uncle Dick" and Uncle John walked into a
chair and said "excuse me" to it. You had to be there.)
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| With Uncle Tom at Lenny's in CT |
She
would make a whole Thanksgiving dinner for 10 and then bake a special
pie for me - chocolate pudding in a flaky crust with whipped cream on
top just for me. I would share but it was for me.
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| Reading with Henry |
I
told her I liked getting mail and when I went to UNC freshman year she
sent me hundreds of cards, I mean one almost every day, hallmark cards
and notes and Readers Digest clippings, I still have them all in a box.
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| Listening to Jojo at Angela's shower |
She didn't like to talk a lot, she didn't like to eat a lot, she liked to read a lot and rearranged furniture a lot.
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| Trying on shoes at TOPS Asheville, age 85 |
After
the Prescription Center sold, Drezza worked at Country Curtains until
she was 90, when she finally retired. As Chris said as a little kid,
"Drezza is bossy in a quiet kind of way." I never heard her raise her
voice.
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| With mom & Aunt Jan |
She liked chocolate covered raisins and lemon cookies. She was
loyal and gentle and responsible, she put her family first. She liked
mysteries. She never had her ears pierced, always wore clip ons. She
liked things being neat and tidy. She liked having high quality things
and taking impeccable care of them. She liked castles and historical
estates and inns and flowers. Her hair was puffy blonde perfection, she
was five foot one, five foot three with her hair. Her clothes were neat
as a pin. Always. She drank a cup of Lipton black tea every day with
whole milk and real sugar.
She hated cats and birds.
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| With mom and dad on Mount Mitchell |
She was the best
grandma, the best Drezza. I am so lucky.
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