Obituaries

Lucille Korsich and Louis Vuksinich 

I read the obituaries every chance I get. Online, and always, the big edition in the Sunday newspaper. It's a family pastime.

My mom would call my brothers, Bill or Joe, or my sister Susan, or me, and if the purpose of the call was to notify someone of an obituary, there would be no small talk. Mom would start right in. "Lucille Vuksinich died." Then there would be pause while she collected her "data." And I would make myself comfortable and wait for the litany of facts: who the person was, where their family came from in the old country, where they live in Globeville, who they married, how many children they had and what our family connection might be.

Mom continued, "Lucille was a Korsich and we're related somehow. Her father was Leopold, 'Polde' they called him, and he and grandpa and Anton 'Tony' Kumar all came over together from the same town in the old country and settled in Globeville and worked for the Globe Smelter. And Polde married Teresa Gerbic - they'd known each other in the old country but they got married in Globeville.

"And they had five children, two boys - Leo and John, and three girls - Mary, Rose and Lucille, and Lucille was the youngest.

"Now Lucille was older - she was 36 - when she married Louis Vuksinich. And they probably met at St. Jacob's Croatian Hall or the Slovenian Home. And they just had the one son, Larry.

"Lucille went back to the old country, all by herself. It was after Louis had died and it was Yugoslavia then. And she stayed for three weeks with the Korsich family. And then they kept in touch."

When mom had related all the pertinent background information, she would finally get to the purpose of the call, which was to say when and where the Rosary and funeral Mass would be held. And we would attend, of course. Because we're related somehow.

A week or so ago, my sister Susan called. "Did you see the listing for Priselac?" "I did," I replied. Susan continued. "Eighty eight years old, graduated from Annunciation High School and was real proud of his Slovenian and Croatian heritage. Weren't there some Priselacs at Holy Rosary?"

I wished I could call mom.

June Jackson Egan