Elinor Hits the Big Time
A little over four years ago, I wrote this article here about attending the celebration for my dad's first cousin (and my second cousin) Elinor Miller on her 100th birthday. She passed away in 2018 at the age of 102, still a pixie, impressively sharp for 102 and a joy to visit in her home of over 70 years in Winnetka, a northern Chicago suburb where I went to New Trier High School. (The house was about three doors down from where they filmed Home Alone. Elinor said that tourists still came by the neighbor to track it down.25 years later.) My dad always adored Elinor -- he lived to 94, and they spoke regularly. He was largely homebound his later years, but the one time he pushed himself to go out was when he and I went to Elinor's house for a sort of family reunion with another close cousin of his, Marion Simon -- but then adoring Elinor was easy to do. She was an absolutely lovely, vibrant, nurturing lady her entire life.
mong the many stories I remember Elinor talking about was how she was quarantined when she was around three years ago because she'd gotten the Spanish Flue in 2018. Well, as it turns out, WGN television in Chicago found out about this and did an absolutely wonderful five-minute featurette about Elinor, centered around that story. It's told very well by her great-grandaughter Kara. I don't know Kara well, she's a fourth cousin and we've only met once or at most twice, but the video was sent to me by her very proud mom Janice Goldman, who I stay in touch with, and who was overjoyed at seeing her mother remembered this way, let alone by done so by her own daughter. (Janice herself even makes a guest appearance in one photo.)
WGN did a really terrific job with the report. There's a great twist to the story that I won't give away, but they handle it beautifully. And they even got video footage in there of Elinor talking. My favorite part, though, I have to admit was around the 2:20 mark when they show a lot of documents from Elinor's past and application to Northwestern University, all registered to "Elinor Elisberg."
Here it is --
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